It sometimes worries me the answers I get back from some of my peers when politics comes as a topic: “It scares me, so I don’t pay attention to it;" "That’s for adults;" "I’m not into it;" and my personal favorite, “I really don’t care.” It sometimes seems like millennials don’t quiet realize that politics is not an outside thing that can be avoided -- whatever happens within them affects our lives in some type of way, and since politics ultimately refers to the people who make the rules and decide in the name of our community while representing us, it should be a something of interest. What is even more interesting is that the reaction of the conversation turns into a great debate with various opinions, complete opposites.
In the U.S. almost 40 percent of people between the ages of 18 to 24 and around 35 percent of people between the ages of 25 to 34 did not vote in the 2012 presidential elections, and out of the total of Americans who did not vote, almost 14 percent claimed that it was because they were not interested. Those numbers alone may be interpreted for the little care or even responsibility too many people feel toward the country. It is clear to anyone that Americans absolutely love their country, but when it comes to make the decisions, many look the other way.
What always shocks me the most it that even though they “were not interested” to vote, or some minor issue got in the way, too many people feel free to voice their opinions in a negative way, but when they had the chance to speak up they chose not to. Indifference toward the moral duty to vote displays an alienation from the people in general, but from millennials in particular.
Now, I come from a world in which politics as a concept is set into our minds the entire time. Back home, I grew up listening to long conversations about the different issues and candidates and options my family voiced during dinner, to the point where it was not a gathering without someone fighting some other over a specific point of view. But what made the difference for me was actually being aware that at some point, the option to choose what was going to happen with the future of my country, which would affect me, was going to be in my hands and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.
What I sometimes feel when I talk with people born in the '90s is that when someone tells them they should be into politics, this generation understands that they should be hands-down fully informed of every single detail that is going on. What I understand, and which made it much easier to comprehend, is that we should all have enough knowledge over the big names and issues, but more importantly the hunger to search for what we want and means to do it on our own. Being able to get the information, and being interested enough to search for it is just as important as actually knowing everything beforehand.
Conclusively, this lack of interest can be perceived in other areas of everyday life in the new generation of growing adults. When it comes to the point when we decided that not knowing what was happening in politics is OK or that not paying attention was acceptable, bad things happen. Let’s take as an example what happened in the U.K., where some are now asking for a second referendum trying to mend things, while others suggest being responsible for the actions of the country, where too many did not take the voting seriously, choosing just because or not doing it at all. As the future or our country we should be aware that being into politics is not a matter or liking it or not, but more of a responsibility towards what we feel it right for us and our future, fighting for what we think will benefit us all.
So yes, you should “be interested."
