Frankly m'dear, I just don't give a damn

[Indenturedebtor]

Such an iconic quote from such an iconic figure in American culture.

The beat on the street is that people just don't give a damn.

So long as they have bread in their mouths they don't give a damn about rising food prices, or the quality of their food.

So long as they have a job, they don't give a damn about the fact that we're bleeding jobs overseas.

So long as they're not being arrested they don't give a damn about Habeus Corpus. Frankly m'dear if it's not happening to me I just don't give a damn. Those terrists, crimnals, and ne'er do wells prolly deserve it anyways.

Until their child accidentally kills him/herself with their (the parents) gun, or until their child is gunned down in school they just don't give a damn about gun control.

So long as they are not eating ketchup as a vegetable they don't care about the quality of school lunch.

So long as they can still afford to pay for gas they don't care about global warming or outrageous fuel consumption "If I can afford it I deserve it".

So long as the bombs fall on other people they don't care about where/why they fall.

So long as they aren't disabled they would rather save a dime from every paycheck than help another person.

So long as their water is clean they don't care about water pollution.

So long as they are told what they want to hear they don't care about truth.

So long as there is a .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002% chance at outrageous wealth they don't care for whether or not the average american can afford health care, housing, or food.

So long as it's their religion they don't care that others views are being suppressed/subverted in lieu of another religion.

So long as it's their monkey in the WH they don't care about fair elections.

So long as it's not their race/ethnicity/religion/creed/gender that's being suppressed they dont give a damn about "political correctness".

So long as they aren't sick they can blame the medical professionals for the fact that average people don't get adequate medical care.

So long as they aren't going bankrupt they can blame all financial ruin on ingrained personal failings.

So long as they can breathe they don't give a damn about clean air.

So long as their families have been in Murika for one generation they can demonize immigrants.

So long as the constitution serves their purposes they can claim inviolate sanctity. So long as it offends their handfed sensibilities they rally behind the "spirit not the letter".



So long as the heat is slowly increased, the lobster cares nothing for the weather.

So long as there are Cheetos and NFL/UFC/NBA/MLB etc, and of course the lottery 99% of Murikans don't even know that one SHOULD give half a moments thought to what our country is doing or has done.




I talk to ALOT of people, and I broach the uncomfortable subjects on a daily basis. People just plain don't care. Our democracy is broken not because of some grand conspiracy, but because our citizenry is no longer informed nor impassioned. We are doomed to recycle the course of so many empires that have gone before. We will fade into history not because the Romans don't know that the Barbarians are at the gates... but because the Romans frankly don't give a damn.

[Richard Steele]

1. It's the Merkin way. recommended

[KT2000]

2. Yes - it's all about me

I am the center of the universe

Like a lady once wrote in our paper - we do not need universal health care because Medicare is enough.

[Old and In the Way]

3. I think you have it pretty well scoped out.

This is precisely the Republican calculation. "Everything's fine, don't listen to that ONE malcontent who's complaining over there....he/she's probably one of those treasonous Islamofascists!"

Someday, we'll all wake up and find this country totally cleaned out...and those Republicans who collectively sold us out will be nowhere to be found.

[Beerboy]

4. Don't we spend trillions of dollars to have a government

to not care for us? We pay the government and their liars to pretend to care about all that stuff.

[zippy890]

5. I fear you are right. Is this why our leaders have gone silent?

"our citizenry is no longer informed nor impassioned"

People just don't care the direction our country has taken.For all the reasons you have listed.

I have noticed this too on a daily basis talking to people.

[Skittles]

6. I agree with you

most people are pretty fucking selfish and if I hear that crap about how people "don't have time" to care I WILL PUKE

[grilled onions]

7. How DO We Change The Way They Think?

Do we start with the adults who are part of the problem? Should we start with our kids and show them by connecting the dots what we do today will impact our enviroment tommorow?
We can start with ourselves but it's hard to stand by with our reusable cup and see a case of plastic bottles being tossed in the dumpster. It's hard to watch the cars on constant trips to nowhere while oil supplies dwindle and the air clogs up with emissions. But it's even harder to see ice caps melting,knowing that your children and their children will be facing a world with fewer natural resources,less wildlife,shrinking forests and global warming.

[Sugar Smack]

9. We start with the kids.

So many of the ADULTS I know now just don't give a shit. Except my dad. He does.

[Indenturedebtor]

15. That's a big part of what made me care

I grew up in the 80's - 90's, and public school education probably played a huge part in how I came to care. Another thing for me believe it or not was probably Reform Jewish Temple. Nearly every sermon was about how important it is to have social justice here and everywhere, and how we are responsible to the earth as we are responsible for one another, etc.

I hate to say it but I think that religion provides an outlet to alot of people that allows them to feel as though they've done their good deed for the week simply by going. That somehow cracking open a book of psalms for two hours a week sets the crooked astral world alight. But most religious leaders care more about preaching about not having sex or gambling too much, or how virtuous is it to kill gay people, that sheeple focus their do-gooder energy on those "areas"


But really how can we affect that? How can we realistically turn the sermons from "Hate Gays" to "Love thy neighbor"? How can we get the Pope to denounce SUV's? Because truly most people seem to be afraid of thinking for themselves... if you get into an argument that deviates from their prescripted exchange, they change the subject to get back to the meme talking points they've been handfed by their pundit or religious figurehead. It happens over and over and over again.


I think that we need religion on our sides on this one. We need our religious leaders who do the thinking for most of these self centered sheep to tell them that they're going straight to hell for being bigots, and for outrageous consumption of resources, for voting against the well being of children, etc.

I dunno maybe we should organize a letter writing campaign to the Vatican? Seriously though what do you guys think of that? Ask the pope to issue a bull about global warming?

And thanks for all the recs guys!

[Pastiche423]

20. I was w/you until

you brought in religion.

Religion is responsible for the majority of wars in our world's history.

[Beerboy]

23. I read it as well.

It was OK until the religious crap. Unless he said he's thinking of reverting to Islam.

[travelingtypist]

8. Too true, too true.

The good/bad thing is that if we keep going on this path, their water
will be polluted and they will care. They won't be able to afford gas
and they will care.

Something will hit them and they will care. We can't keep going like
this and have the majority of Amurikans be unaffected by this shit.
It's just not possible.

[raccoon]

10. May I add one?

So long as their kids aren't in public school, they don't give a happy rat's arse if the schools go down the toilet.


Great post. K&R.

[unhappycamper]

11. Excellent post.

And welcome to DU. :hi:

k&r

[babylonsister]

12. Reality is sobering. Rec'd. nt

[Blue Belle]

13. Bread and Circuses...

placate the masses.

[catmandu57]

14. Hit the nail on the head

with this. I don't know what to do, I don't think anyone does or we would have done it. These days I believe myself fortunate to have lived this long because their won't be that much left before I'm gone. I'm ready to say fuck it if this is what you people really want, let me bandage my bloody head and get out of the way.

[BeFree]

16. Hey, not so fast

We better have at least 10 more good years. Or don't you care?

But you're right, people just don't care. Mainly because they have been led to believe that they will be taken care of by bushco. Too, the thought of the coming collapse is a huge turnoff.

Buckle up, it's gonna be one hell of a ride!

[stranger81]

17. Excellent post . . . . I think this dawned on me when my mother died

She was uninsured, died of something easily treatable, and refused to go to the hospital for fear of the bill. When she passed, I was astonished that a handful of my "friends" took this very attitude -- you know, "I have health care, so why couldn't she get it?" -- that kind of thing. Obviously, those are not people that I count among my friends any longer, but I really didn't understand the magnitude of the utter lack of empathy until that moment.

[Zero Division]

18. It's not just our government or TPTB, it's the people and our way of life.

You've said something here that nearly everyone who is obsessed with politics either forgets or is too focused on the purely political aspects of our society to see. And it isn't necessarily just selfishness or willful ignorance (although those play an important part), it's also the fact that many people feel overwhelmed by the more proximate (or apparently proximate) factors in their lives.

But how do we deal with this problem? Few can think of ways to deal with such problems outside of direct political action when that may not be the most effective or only way to deal with the deeper problems.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. "All politics is local." - Tip O'Neill

As a (sympathetic) poli/sci professor once told us when we were "disrupting" his class during that other war:

"The war will end when enough people have their kids come home in bags, and they have to reach for their wallets to pay for it."

The populace doesn't give a damn because they have their own priorities, most of which you listed. And, they are convinced that they are powerless and elect "leaders" to keep everything on an even keel.

They aren't against the war in Iraq on moral grounds - they are against the war in Iraq because it's obviously lost and they're having to pay for it.

[live love laugh]

21. May I add a few...

So long as the people who drown and die uncounted in the streets of America don't look like them, they don't give a damn.

So long as those whose houses burn to ashes can only be viewed from a teevee screen, they don't care...

[porphyrian]

22. That assumes it will already be too late by the time people are made uncomfortable enough to care.

I think things are going to get un-ignorably shitty for most of us in short order. Get ready to point them in the right direction when they wake up.

[RebelSansCause]

24. while i don't think mr. butler

should be viewed as who you should strive to be, this is quite the post, kinda like what i was trying to get at with mine, but failed at miserably. kudos to you sir, for being able to articulate this into words. :yourock: :bounce:

[GrpCaptMandrake]

25. That ain't a post

It's a poem!

Damned good!

All the more reason for us to look for community where people DO care. We must support each other!




Get On The H.O.R.N.!
The New American Conversation
www.headonradionetwork.com
and
iTunes Radio (Talk/Spoken Word)

[midnight]

26. We all are so lucky to have D.U. to read what is going on in the

news, and discuss it. The problem is so clear that people don't care. Most of us are lucky to get the food on the table, pay the bills, have a beverage, etc.... Politics normally is for the affluent, but thanks to D.U. we have a better chance of being informed and caring.

[lonestarnot]

27. I hate the thought of this truth.