“I don’t pay attention to politics”
I met a young man, a recent MBA, working for a financial advisory company. In his attempt to establish a connection, he asked if I was a fan of the Golden State Warriors, since I live in California. He is in the midwest. I laughed a bit and said I wasn’t even sure what sport he was talking about. Later in an email exchange, I said “I’m not much on sports, but if you ever want to talk politics, I’m all ears.”
“I don’t pay attention to politics” was his reply. OMG. Is there a hotter hot button for me than that? Apathy? Privilege? The sense that one doesn’t have to pay attention? So I responded, perhaps a bit more bluntly than he was accustomed to. Here’s my reply:
“If you don’t pay attention to politics, you aren’t being a responsible adult. There is some serious stuff happening in local, state, and national politics that impacts all of us, especially younger folks who are going to have to live with the consequences for longer than I will. So please DO pay attention. You don’t have to agree with me on any particular issue, but you should think critically about how different representatives have acted and might act in the future, and how their actions might impact all of us. Think about truth-telling, public safety (Michigan lawmakers occupying your capitol and threatening your governor!), voter access, racial justice, climate change, tax policy, and accountability, among many other issues. I may sound preachy, but I’m quite serious. I would not hire anyone and I don’t really want to work with anyone who enjoys the benefits of our society without taking seriously their responsibility for engaging in the political system, so please pay attention. Not just for me, but for you and your family and your community.
End of lecture.”
After a day, he wrote back, and said he had given my message a lot of thought. He said he may have misrepresented his awareness of the importance of the issues. He said he does pay attention, and he does vote for his values and encourage others to do the same.
He concluded with “I meant to say I give a lot of thought and attention to these issues without paying attention to the bloodsport that is within the political news. …I don’t have apathy or indifference towards politics in general, but rather a general distaste that leads to ‘not paying attention to’ much of the political news.”
I felt better about him, but still discouraged. How do we know what’s going on if we don’t pay attention to political news. It’s not an original idea for me to write that many sources for so-called political news are not objective, and are not driven by a desire to educate the public. What drives many of our information sources is a desire to sell advertisements, to cater to a selective audience that already holds clearly defined views, and to stir up controversy.
So how can we be educated about the issues? How do we know who stands for what? Are there sources that we can trust to be objective and unbiased? Stay tuned for my next blog post for some answers.