Youth and their interest in Politics

I hate politics, full-stop. It has absolutely no use in my life. But I did this only because I like writing.

The younger generation should have a basic understanding of the ethical aspect of politics, that way they can recognise scandals and sorts when they happen. If you cannot recognise injustice and unfairness being brought about by the government, it means that they can get away with anything and ruin the country while doing so.

If the newer generation develops an interest in politics, it will allow some of them to develop an appreciation for this topic and maybe they could pursue a career in politics, which would be a good thing. The world in its entirety needs more young presidents and politicians as a whole. We need those who will favour the next generations instead of favouring oil companies because they make a lot of money, Trump, I'm looking at you. Newer generations understand our problems much more. Depression, suicide, climate change, global warming, a younger politician will understand these issues and likely address them. Honestly, younger politicians are also less likely to be insane, mentally. Guess who I'm looking at again.

Politics is not everyone's cup of tea. I cannot go tell you to start learning and understanding the inner workings of artificial intelligence with the only reason being that AI will be a technology of extreme prominence in our future lives. If I did that, nobody would care, nobody is interested.

Students should prioritise their studies. With tuition, homework, revisions and school during the day, it is not very feasible to go take a newspaper and try to understand what the hell some politicians are talking about. It's an unnecessary complication which some students are not interested in. I, personally, would prefer to learn about artificial intelligence rather than try to understand what such and such in charge is trying to do.

I'm not trying to say that a total disregard for politics is a good thing. Maybe just know more or less what is going on. Example: Wakashio. People should be aware of the cover up on the government's behalf and the injustice involved.

Another reason for disinterest is that our government is so bad that we have heard everything there is to hear. Bribes, scandals etc... We just are not interested anymore because there's nothing new and there's nothing we can do about it. Hence, I understand and support the disinterest in politics. It's more interesting and fruitful to progress academically or to learn about something new, like artificial intelligence.

It has been a really long time since I wrote this and I think it would be a good idea to update my stance. While I still stand by what I said about how students should prioritise their studies and that total understanding of the intricacies of politics is useless to the average person, I do believe that it is important to understand what is going on in the country.

The importance of this lies not in the need to know. But the risk of not knowing. I will not overcomplicate things but not knowing the political landscape in your country can be dangerous as it can lead to abuse of power and exploitation of you. Furthermore, not caring about political issues also means that you are uneducated when it comes to elections. And even out of elections, a population uninterested in politics will never have its voice be heard.

And why does your voice need to be heard? Obviously, to avoid abuse of power and scandals and all of that. Because the government is a representative body of the population (in a democracy. whether MRU is still a democracy is up for debate) and is not supposed to be taking decisions which the population disagrees with.

This brings me to my last point. Complacency and disregard for politics means that the population will forever be unable to mobilise and protest and maybe even riot in ways which would be of any significance.

Anyway, this is an update of my stance - I think I have matured a bit in the last two years :P