Dave Meslin The antidote to apathy

But that's not apathy that's intentional exclusion.

Nothing is more sad than stupidity and apathy.

Unfortunately, a lot of people's experience is in apathy.

But, fear is better than apathy because fear makes us do something.

It was a beautiful friendship that gradually ripened... into complete apathy, baby.

The first level, the weakest level of civil response against violence, is denial and apathy.

Frequently, grandparents are raising their grandchildren because parents, due to alcoholism, domestic violence and general apathy, cannot raise them.

It was noted that there was a high level of bystander apathy fuelled by citizens' ignorance of their neighbours.

The apathy that had crippled her in hospital yields to long walks fishing trips, cooking, letter writing and other diversions.

We need to move Mexican society from denial and apathy to the next level of citizen response, which is, effectively, recognition.

not only close, but belonging to each other in a way that nothing could ever destroy, except the apathy of habit, the only threat.

Boredom begins to be very aversive and apathy becomes very negative you don't feel that you're doing anything, you don't use your skills, there's no challenge.

Political apathy reflects many factors, but two stand out. A few days before the parliamentary election, people were asked if they hoped for a better life.

Secondly, the subject of youth and civil society was the focus of most of the debate, demonstrating that there is no link between young people and apathy.

In our view, recent setbacks in the arms control field should not lead us into despair or apathy, but should rather serve as spurs to corrective action.

It drew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy, who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

But Karl Marx and Alexis de Tocqueville, the two great social analysts of the nineteenth century, knew better what makes people tick, and what makes societies change. Extreme poverty breeds apathy, not rebellion.

Unlike their neighbors in Egypt, Libyans are not clamoring for the elections deemed by many Westerners to be of paramount importance. Instead, they have drawn on a patience rooted in their traditional political apathy.

Instead of creating incentives that would unleash public energies, the government pushed citizens farther and farther from politics and policymaking, thereby deepening social apathy and atomization. Moreover, the opportunity provided by the oil boom was wasted.

Given the current rapid advancements in technology and human capabilities and the exponential accumulation of wealth in some parts of the world, it is unconscionable to let less fortunate fellow human beings suffer through neglect and apathy.

I propose to you today that apathy as we think we know it doesn't actually exist, but rather, that people do care, but that we live in a world that actively discourages engagement by constantly putting obstacles and barriers in our way.

Unfortunately, those drug makers then take advantage of developing countries weak or poorly implemented legislation and corrupt officials to pass their products through local supply chains and into shops. Public ignorance or apathy means that those responsible are able to avoid prosecution.

Local politics schools, zoning, council elections hit us where we live. So why don't more of us actually get involved? Is it apathy? Dave Meslin says no. He identifies 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities, even when we truly care.

Beginning in 1986, the Libyan Central Bank ceased publishing the annual statistical reports that economists and specialists need to formulate coherent policies. Frustrated by his population s political apathy, Qaddafi frequently announced his intention to dissolve all government ministries and transfer their responsibilities to municipalities.

In fact, most Russians are indifferent to the government's efforts to curtail press freedom and limit the right to protest. Such apathy makes my task as Russia's ombudsman, an office charged by the State Duma (parliament) with protecting political rights in Russia, difficult, if not impossible.

But much must still be accomplished, by Africans and with Africa s many friends around the world. As in the Bible story, when Peter and John said to a beggar, rise up and walk, Africans are called upon to walk away from ignorance, inertia, apathy, and fatalism.

Rouhani, it should be remembered, won a surprising victory in an election with roughly 75 voter turnout, despite expectations of widespread apathy. Rouhani mobilized Iranians by offering a clear program for economic renewal, which hinges on Iran s engagement with the international community and thus on progress in nuclear negotiations.

Consider that apathy, excessive shopping, and overuse of the Internet are all serious contenders for inclusion in the next edition of the DSM, due to appear in 2012. If the history of psychiatry is any guide, a new class of medication will soon be touted to treat them.

Governments, in order to contain the fallout of the crisis, ran up public debt, including in countries whose balance sheets had already been weakened significantly by declining GDP growth. In many countries particularly in Southern Europe bleak economic circumstances are generating social tension, political apathy, civil unrest, and delinquency.

Francis still faces widespread apathy among believers, especially in the advanced industrial societies, where disaffected Catholics are increasingly questioning their commitment or simply opting out. While Francis s soothing manner seems to be helping to slow this erosion, whether he will be able to reverse the trend remains far from certain.

The EU s legitimacy problem has two different aspects apathy, leading to a low turnout in the European parliamentary elections, and outright euro skepticism. The voter turnout problem partly reflects frustration about the present state of the EU, and also people s impression that they can exert little influence by voting one way or the other.

Given widespread apathy about changes in consumer prices, the modest success of a new market to hedge inflation risk, the European inflation futures market at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), is noteworthy. Since September, this new market has traded the Eurozone s Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, or HICP a contract that traders call the hiccup.

But, while history is replete with murderous regimes applauded by cowed and deceived masses, the greater risk for democratic nations is that their citizens withdraw into apathy and short term thinking for immediate gratification. The past despite rituals that seek to commemorate historic moments is obliterated by an addiction to the now and the new.

My main message is, if we can redefine apathy, not as some kind of internal syndrome, but as a complex web of cultural barriers that reinforces disengagement, and if we can clearly define, we can clearly identify, what those obstacles are, and then if we can work together collectively to dismantle those obstacles, then anything is possible.

This problem underscores the importance of providing potential donors with tested methods that hold the promise to solve Chernobyl challenges by mobilizing the energies of communities that have in many cases sunk into apathy and fatalism, and by demonstrating that money invested in Chernobyl can help create new livelihoods that will ultimately eliminate the need for further international support.

There is nothing devastating in this, of course, but Poland s political malaise may one day prove dangerous, and so should be scrutinized in other democracies, old and new. For the problems of anomie, apathy, and political charade are not Polish problems, but maladies that increasingly afflict democracies everywhere, and that urgently call for a restoring of faith in parties and politics.