MWF 2010 authors on… apathy

Carol Bacchi

I would like to see more attention paid to the distinction between ‘apathetic’ and ‘disaffected’. The common characterisation of the ‘voting public’ as apathetic neatly sheets home to them any ills in the political system. By contrast the term ‘disaffected’ implies a healthy and justified scepticism that implies the need for significant political change.

Emmett Stinson

Is it possible to have strong feelings about apathy? Rather than succumb to the limbo of apathy, my preference (or so it would appear) is to hold strong opinions that I will inevitably disagree with, and, in this way, I can easily vacillate between extremes, thereby avoiding apathy (although you could argue that the net result is the same since these opposing opinions balance each other out like the two sides of an algebraic equation). I have, however, been bored, tired, emotionally exhausted, overwhelmed (and perhaps even drunk) to the point where it’s tantamount to apathy. I have also experienced ambivalence, although I have mixed feelings about it. I do suspect that the great novel of apathy has yet to be written, but, ultimately, whatever.

Feel free to share your own responses to the topic, or to the authors’ responses, in the comments.