Apathy is at once wonderful and annoying. It’s this brilliant song of people saying: “Whaddja do last weekend?” “Not much, watched the Olympics and had a couple beers.” Absolutely mindless dialogue we still seem to find interesting to talk about, despite the fact that the formula of sports event/party/going out and drinking never actually changes. And the conversation of the following week revolves around complaining about homework and funny/stupid anecdotes from the previous weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, I resort to that conversation as well. Even I can’t talk about politics, religion and the meaning of life all the time. However, I do enjoy a conversation that you need an IQ higher than a monkey to have.

Which brings me to the present situation: meaningful discussion and dialogue on this campus, by the majority of the population, is lacking.

I rarely hear people in the Marketplace discussing major political or social issues. Occasionally you’ll hear someone from the left say some generic drivel against Glenn Beck or someone from the right say something similar about Obama. *Yawn.* I don’t care about Glenn Beck and I don’t care about Obama. Why aren’t you lefties talking about how to stop Glenn Beck’s message which seems to be reverberating with so many people, rather than just say how stupid those people are? Why aren’t you righties talking about how to kick the President out of office in the 2012 elections?

Better yet, why aren’t we discussing the underlying philosophies that make the right and left different? I realize that most people don’t know the philosophies; however it’s something people need to learn. I don’t say that just because I’m a Political Science major; I say it because those philosophies will be fighting it out to decide how to govern your immediate world. Don’t you think you might want to know a little about what’s going on?

I know, I know. The left is for the people and the right is for big businesses, we all accept and believe in this stereotype. However, how many of you have actually looked to see if it’s true? Look at the exit polls and data from the last election—it might surprise you.

Here’s what really gets me about apathy, what I truly find wonderful about it. I complain that there isn’t enough conversation, interest, or anything else about meaningful topics. However, when the masses get roiled up and we start seeing “grassroots” activism, that’s when I get REALLY annoyed.

The Tea Party movement is bothersome to me, mostly because they are doing a lot of shouting and not a lot of discussing. They remind me of the MoveOn.org crowd way too much. And there is no crowd I am more annoyed by than MoveOn.org people. I think supporters of NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) are less annoying than MoveOn.org supporters.

What really grinds my gears (other than people making Family Guy references), is when someone mocks and complains about a mass movement, whether the Tea Partiers or the MoveOn.org-ers (though the MoveOn.org crowd have been in the background since like 2006). Are these people as educated as the political elites of society? Of course not.

It’s a mass movement that picks up numerous groups of people. Are these people organized by groups that have lots of money? Of course!

George Soros, the billionaire lefty, has given millions to leftist grassroots organizations. What do those organizations do? Rabble rouse and get people to show up at events. Rupert Murdoch, the rich righty, has given millions to right wing grassroots organizations. What do those organizations do? Rabble rouse and get people to show up at events!

The right and the left are both incredibly well funded by wealthy people. And if the definition of “Astro-turfing” is getting people to an event put on by organizations with multi-million dollar budgets, then everything that the right and left do is “Astro-turfing” and grassroots organization, at least the way we’ve idealized it in our heads, is dead. There is always a parent organization, with huge funding, or wealthy individual at the top of all these grassroots movements. This was not always the case, but it is today.

So apathy is wonderful, because I can sit back and be a political elitist and not listen to the rabble yell and scream about issues they barely understand. However, it’s also annoying because people should be talking and caring about political issues. But then they start talking and caring about political issues and it turns into a screaming match. Then I can sit back as a political elitist and say how foolish they all are. Apathy has little effect; I’m a political elitist no matter what. It only affects the ways in which I behave. Either way, I don’t care about apathy, but I need to converse with fellow elitists.