Funny, when I read this article I had to think about the current economic crisis and global warming. Maybe most people are apathetic about these because they look around and see that everyone else is acting like normal so they suppose it’s not as big a deal as it really is and that everything is going to turn out ok.
That is frighteningly plausible. But how do you explain our political obsessions like abortion, gay marriage, or drugs? Those things aren’t existential threats, but our political discourse treats them like they are and they often dominate the discussion.
Perhaps we differentiate between talking about a situation (e.g. “someone ought to do something about gay marriage”) and “actually doing something” about it (e.g. writing your governmental representative).
Funny, when I read this article I had to think about the current economic crisis and global warming. Maybe most people are apathetic about these because they look around and see that everyone else is acting like normal so they suppose it’s not as big a deal as it really is and that everything is going to turn out ok.
That is frighteningly plausible. But how do you explain our political obsessions like abortion, gay marriage, or drugs? Those things aren’t existential threats, but our political discourse treats them like they are and they often dominate the discussion.
Perhaps we differentiate between talking about a situation (e.g. “someone ought to do something about gay marriage”) and “actually doing something” about it (e.g. writing your governmental representative).