According to this interesting site (a bit outdated, but less disregard that for a bit), while most Europeans tend to trust the police, the army and the media, their confidence in national Parliaments, national Governments and political parties is frighteningly low (as low as 16% in the case of the latter). I say frighteningly because, after all, we can’t vote for the police nor the media, but we can vote for our Parliament and our Government, and apparently we cannot find anyone amongst our panoply of politicians in whom we trust. Why? 'They're all shit' seems to be the most realistic answer, but it is also the easiest one to provide and it is clearly not enough.
Until recently, I was a very firm believer in political institutions. They are the symbols of our sovereignty. Without them we’re lost. Even if we made a mistake when voting, or if the party we wanted to win didn’t, our duty as citizens was to make sure the law and the Constitution were respected, and if that was the case, nothing could go wrong. I took particular pride in the Constitution of my country - written after the Revolution of 1974, it was a monument of civil rights and liberties. Reading it was a joy, studying it for any exam I took when I did Law was a renewal of my trust in democracy and in politics (and as you can see, because it is painfully obvious, I was only 18).
But alas, politicians have the power to change the Constitution and for that they don’t need your vote (strictly speaking, they do via a referendum, but they find clever ways around it). And alas, you grow up; you realize that people in political parties are just as bad (rarely just as good) as everybody else, very often so mediocre and brainwashed it makes you want to slap them; you realize that what is written on paper is abysmally different from what reality allows; and you’re left alone. Your ideals crash. You don’t believe in most things anymore, and certainly not in some more or less cheesy, more or less polished ‘yes we can’.
So, I read what Lady V wrote below and I’m also left wondering – what can we do? Can anything be done, even? My opinion is that not much can be done. I’ve written a comment preaching about the right/duty to vote, but sometimes I am convinced that voting is just an illusion that Coca-Cola allows us to have to keep us quietly collecting the dole without going any further in our protests. But then I think about the suffragettes, about the civil right movements in Europe and in the United States, and I compare all this with what the statistics tell me today, of people not voting, of people not trusting, and all I have left is sadness. So, and to conclude (my students would love this), I don’t have any answer to give Lady V, I don’t believe in any kind of activism, I don’t think anything can make a difference. But somehow, I still think that voting can help. And somehow, I still think that being polite to people and trying to be less mean can help. It’s all I have left, and I guess it’s better than nothing, so I’ll keep this till I find something better.
Until recently, I was a very firm believer in political institutions. They are the symbols of our sovereignty. Without them we’re lost. Even if we made a mistake when voting, or if the party we wanted to win didn’t, our duty as citizens was to make sure the law and the Constitution were respected, and if that was the case, nothing could go wrong. I took particular pride in the Constitution of my country - written after the Revolution of 1974, it was a monument of civil rights and liberties. Reading it was a joy, studying it for any exam I took when I did Law was a renewal of my trust in democracy and in politics (and as you can see, because it is painfully obvious, I was only 18).
But alas, politicians have the power to change the Constitution and for that they don’t need your vote (strictly speaking, they do via a referendum, but they find clever ways around it). And alas, you grow up; you realize that people in political parties are just as bad (rarely just as good) as everybody else, very often so mediocre and brainwashed it makes you want to slap them; you realize that what is written on paper is abysmally different from what reality allows; and you’re left alone. Your ideals crash. You don’t believe in most things anymore, and certainly not in some more or less cheesy, more or less polished ‘yes we can’.
So, I read what Lady V wrote below and I’m also left wondering – what can we do? Can anything be done, even? My opinion is that not much can be done. I’ve written a comment preaching about the right/duty to vote, but sometimes I am convinced that voting is just an illusion that Coca-Cola allows us to have to keep us quietly collecting the dole without going any further in our protests. But then I think about the suffragettes, about the civil right movements in Europe and in the United States, and I compare all this with what the statistics tell me today, of people not voting, of people not trusting, and all I have left is sadness. So, and to conclude (my students would love this), I don’t have any answer to give Lady V, I don’t believe in any kind of activism, I don’t think anything can make a difference. But somehow, I still think that voting can help. And somehow, I still think that being polite to people and trying to be less mean can help. It’s all I have left, and I guess it’s better than nothing, so I’ll keep this till I find something better.
