If you don't engage in politics, you're the reason for this mess

Source: CBS News

I try to litter my Facebook posts with a variety of items from very many fields of life, but the one area that gets the least number of reactions is that of politics. Is it because politics turns people cold? Is it because politics brings them out of their comfort zone? Is it because they're just not interested? Or is it because people feel they don't know enough about it to want to contribute?




I think the answer to all those questions is "yes". And I truly think anyone who didn't vote or at least make some indent in the situation in their home countries should bear some if not a large part of the blame for the ills befalling it.

You go to the hospital with a broken arm and you wait 6 hours to be seen.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Your children's school is overcrowded and their academic achievements are being eroded.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

The local streets are full of damaged roads and dangerous pavements that have caused a number of accidents.

Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

You can no longer afford to buy a house in your area because the local council has sold all the available building land to developers who are only interested in erecting top-end housing.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

Your city centre is now bereft of shops as rents have become too high for small businesses like butchers, shoe repairers and greengrocers. All that's left are estate agents, charity shops and boarded-up windows.

Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Your local forest is being prepared for destruction to make way for a company involved in the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground there.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

The seaside resort you used to go to in happier times is now a run-down shell of itself, riddled with drugs and prostitution, where kids as young as 11 are engaging in petty crime and sedition.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

Your salary has stagnated and prices continue to rise to the point where certain things you took for granted are becoming difficult to afford.

Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

You were asked by the Prime Minister to vote in a referendum to stay or leave the EU. You have no idea what the EU does, you don't spend a few moments looking it up on the Internet and in the end you don't vote. Then you lose your job as you don't want to move to Frankfurt.

Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Then...

People with dangerous ideas have taken over the government of your country:

• they want to return any immigrants, no matter how well they have integrated; 
• they want benefits only for locals; 
• they discriminate against gays, minorities, women, the under-25s, the over-65s and those with physical and mental impairments; 
• they want to bring in draconian punishments for even minor offences; 
• they want to remove the country from any altruistic agreements with other nations; 
• they want to double spending on weapons and halve spending on education and healthcare; 
• they want to make military service compulsory; 
• they want to remove protections to the environment to make extraction of resources in protected areas easier; 
• they want to remove the financial safety net that has been the difference between your being able to remain living in the area where you were raised to forcing you to move hundreds of miles away;
• they want to be able to check on your online activities whenever they feel like it;
• they consider those who disagree with their ideas to be dangerous subversives and are placed under surveillance.

But you don't engage in politics, so don't complain if any of these things affect you.

There is nothing a politician likes more than indifference and ignorance of the issues. It means they can run roughshod all over you and know they can get away with it. They know they can carry out all kinds of nefarious activities, and even if they end up in the press, they have a good chance they'll get away with it.

Don't let this happen. 

Inquire. Engage. Vote. 

INQUIRE:

Look into issues that affect you and the world around you, whether it be public transport, health, nature, or the current government and its activities, and react appropriately to injustices.

ENGAGE:

Do something positive to change things for the better, whether it be writing to your local representative, taking part in a protest, delivering leaflets for your cause or writing blogs.

VOTE:

If you don't vote, you don't make your choice, so don't be surprised when things either don't change or get worse.