Why people are emotive about politics?

[Flying Fish]

any ideas?

 

[Broadside]

Because they feel insignificant and disempowered and it frustrates them, but come election time all those frustrations are

UNLEASHED!

 

[2020hindsight]

For mine, FF, I haven't necessarily liked what I've heard the pollies get emotive about (or fail to be emotive about) for 3 years or so in several directions,

- a generally sloppy approach to "democracy"

- including a massive smugness creeping into their style (dumping 600 page documents on parliament with 1 day to read and vote on) etc ...

- and I guess I'm just looking forward to my democratic right to "tell em" what I think. Hopefully the next parliament will be a bit more "democratic"

 

[BradK]

Good words there:

Disempowered, insignificant, frustrated ... the sense that we have no real control over the destiny of our country and yet have to foot the bill for it.

I also think that left/ right, conservative/ progressive does not matter - all sides have a strong opinion about politics and think they are the victims of the malice/ stupidity of the other.

The good thing is that people are talking about politics - and workchoices and interest rates have got them talking.

How good is it that we can have a good ol' stoush in a free country like Australia?? Even if the mod does step in every now and then with a warning

Cheers
Brad

 

[Nyden]

Because it's our responsibility to do so.

If nobody cared, the state of things would be considerably worse than they are! At least the way it is now; what with the media...there's a hint of accountability.

 

[niknah]

I can't understand it either, politics and religion, they fire some people up. Not me, I think it's the most boring thing on tv, rather be watching a commercial.

Once I watched an episode of Wife Swap where they had a family that was really into politics and talked about it everytime they sat down and that's what all their kids were into. I guess it's just what environment you grew up in.

 

[chops_a_must]

Because it's our responsibility to do so.

If nobody cared, the state of things would be considerably worse than they are! At least the way it is now; what with the media...there's a hint of accountability.

Yup. People forget that.

As for me, I've always been passionate/ emotive about politics. Certainly not as much as I used to be though. I used to do how do vote cards before I could vote etc. But I think a lot of it depends on your personal interests. If you aren't into certain fields, you probably aren't going to be interested in politics.

 

[stoxclimber]

Yeah people are very emotive. An above poster said - if you didn't care then the system would fall apart. But the sort of emotion people show isn't what should be holding the system together - blind hatred of Howard (or for those back in the day Keating) etc., and also blind fear of Labor and so on, that sort of emotion isn't what keeps the system together.

What keeps the system together should be logical discourse. But it seems to have mostly gone out the window everywhere.

 

[Happy]

Most people know what they would do and if government for any reason does something else and if on top of that they feel strongly that they are right, we have good chance to see build up of emotions.

 

[2020hindsight]

you want to see emotive??

try this one.!

Building burns at Ground Zero...

it took 6 years, 20 safety violations and 2 deaths for New York City to FINALLY act on this, disaster waiting to happen!!!

I have seen reports where the WTC towers were well known to have inadequate vermiculite protection of steel frame - and (except for this) would have been able to handle that temp for that duration.

i.e. 9/11 would not have been the catastrophy it was it it weren't for slack inspectors.

 

[2020hindsight]

of course , there are other options I guess...

 

[ithatheekret]

Perhaps it is because the voter is generally an inert force that get's to come out of hybernation like a bear awoken to early . P'd off and hungry for action !

 

[Knobby22]

I get frustrated every time I see the terrorism add (which seems to be on every 15 minutes) and think how the Liberals are wasting my taxes.

 

[Julia]

I get frustrated every time I see the terrorism add (which seems to be on every 15 minutes) and think how the Liberals are wasting my taxes.

Agreed. And all other advertising. Here is the cure: record the programmes you want to watch, do something constructive while they are actually on, then play them back at your convenience, fast forwarding through the advertising. I haven't watched any television advertising for years.

 

[Smurf1976]

Yup. People forget that.

As for me, I've always been passionate/ emotive about politics. Certainly not as much as I used to be though. I used to do how do vote cards before I could vote etc. But I think a lot of it depends on your personal interests. If you aren't into certain fields, you probably aren't going to be interested in politics.

Much the same here although I very nearly became a major party candidate at one stage. None of that would have happened if I didn't have an interest in things which just happen to be political in nature.

I'm about to try and stir a bit of attention over a specific issue but unfortunately don't have the time at the moment to do it properly so will just do it locally and see what happens.

 

[nioka]

People are emotive about politics for sure. I once stood as a candidate in the local government elections. I topped the poll and was a local councillor for 3 years. At the next elections I did not stand. I found out that every time you did something you upset 10% of the population. Because it was a different 10% each time, by the time you had done 10 "things" you had upset everyone. At least that is how it seemed to me.