Apathy On The Rise: No–One Cares
It's only the third day of officially permitted election campaigning, and already there are complaints.
"Student politics is boring. All the candidates say the same things. All the candidates have silly slogans. Nothing the Union does really makes any difference." And so on.
It's evident that people feel disconnected from Union politics. On the surface it's easy to see why – like all poitical entities, the Union is beaureaucratic and burdened by regulations, and often seems to be utterly ineffectual.
But here's the thing – if you don't get out and vote, you're not going to get any more conected to Union politics. Letting elections become inquorate isn't going to help the Union be effective.
Here at Warwick the students have a platfrorm for their views. It could scarcely be easier to have your voice be heard – voting can be performed online, general meetings encourage atttendance from the whole student body. If the Union isn't working for you, then you have the chance to change that. All you have to do is care.
Your vote won't change anything? Maybe, maybe not. But you can be sure that apathy won't change anything.
Political entities are shaped by their supporters. If the Union seems ineffectual and irrelevant to you, perhaps thats because you've never tried to make it work, to make it relevant.
So vote. Vote awesome. Or vote differently. Just make your view heard.
6 comments by 1 or more people
[Skip to the latest comment]Well said.
30 Jan 2005, 12:32
Yeah, if the elections are inquorate and then another set are inquorate, I suspect that we on Council will end up co-opting next year's officers wholesale, which is a very unhealthy state of affairs and is also likely to work in favour of people who are current Union officers.
30 Jan 2005, 12:47
Good stuff Tom. You might want to fix that link though, it only has two w's.
30 Jan 2005, 17:18
Fixed, but oddly enough it was wrking with only two w's. For me, anyway.
30 Jan 2005, 22:12
or......
i prefer the idea of running things like this:
link
except to be applied to everywhere. sorry, this doesn't have much to do with the elections….....
31 Jan 2005, 22:25
parker
i've only seen that one bit
24 Feb 2005, 13:27
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