The Dangers of Apathy

Preface: Not my best writing, but bear with me.



Well.......this is awkward, to say the least.

And yet, despite the obvious cruelty occurring in these farms, here in Michigan, the "Right to Farm" was just taken from us last month by the Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development, probably at the behest of big corporations wanting to keep control of the market.

Isn't that awful?  We could be taking a stand against those corporations and their practices by raising our own dairy, meat, etc., but the government's stepped in and said that's not ok.

But see, it's even bigger than just this issue.  These kinds of regulatory acts happen all the time, and most people are completely unaware, similarly to what's talked about at the end of the video.  Except this type of willful ignorance is almost worse, because it's not even that you all know, but don't want to; you're not even trying to know.  The kind of apathy with regards to politics is SO damaging, but I see it everywhere.  You say, "politics doesn't affect me."  But it does, don't you see?

Part of why this issue is such a good example is that you're going to sit there after watching that video, and feel bad about it, and want to do something about it.  Now, you could boycott the big companies and only buy free range/organic/whatever, that's a valid option.  But money's tight, sometimes, and those tend to be more expensive.  So maybe you could raise your own food, as mentioned above, but oh wait, you can't.  Government says no.

But there's the crux of the issue: if you'd been paying attention to what your government was doing in the first place, maybe you could've stopped this before it even took hold.

Now, you're going to have to kill the weed after it's grown, rather than having kept the seed from even being planted.

Now, not only will it be harder for you to help yourself, it'll be harder for you to help the animals, too.

Pay attention, people.  As Pericles said, "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."