I admit, my current attitude about all this might just be influenced by my coughing and feeling cruddy in the mornings, but I still feel like sharing my thought process ( / rant). By the way, if you disagree with anything I write, or have a different way of looking at it, please share in the comments. I don't want this blog to be like 'You must like my thinking, shut up, and not challenge it and share your views!' Let's sit down and discuss our different thought processes, and we might both walk away enlightened.
Anyway...
The other day I was in Red Square, and my senses were just being bombarded by politics. And it wasn't even like "real politics" with all the mud-slinging, and reputation-ruining, it was just there, all over the place. Hastily-scrawled signs being carried by candidates and their roped-together friends, asking people to stop and listen to why they should be chosen for their prized position, yada yada yada.
It felt like legalized graffiti in a way--people name-bombing their faces and practically begging for votes. At least with name-bombing some of the signatures of the "artists" looked somewhat intriguing. There's very little eye-catching (in a good way) in seeing someone's face in a cluster of six or seven posters, framed by hideously-colored duct-taped, and skewed, nonetheless. If you're so serious about running for a position, at least try to make a professional effort about it.
[Repetition: Because nothing says competence than the same thing again and again and again...]
I am very much one for creativity, and lately I've been frustrated that a lot of creative and clever pieces of "urban art" (the 'art' part is debatable for some people) that get covered up quickly, but then dumb pieces, like name-bombing and Pedobear "have their way" with campus for weeks on end. Yes, that last line was tailored to be a pun. Go ahead, click the link.
[This beautiful stencil (Fairhaven Tunnel) will probably gone by Monday]
[While Pedobear will more than likely continue chilling out with the candidates near Red Square]
I just see the unprofessional, crookedly taped posters of smiling students and their one-liners, and I feel nothing for them, their causes, or what they'll do once in office. Maybe its because I came from a small high school (total student population was maybe 250), and every student election was just a show of popularity. Once you were voted into office all that politicking just became a reason for you to skip class once and a while, and you couldn't really notice any changes or decisions that were influenced by the winning students.
The only real exposure I've had to politics in a working manner was when I was sitting in on the town council meetings twice a month for the local newspaper. Also, when there was a public forum for the town council candidates last fall. In those situations, there was a public that was involved, interested, asking questions and one obviously see the changes happening.
I feel in a school setting, especially a university campus, you can't really say "Oh, ever since so-and-so got voted into office for Student Affairs, things have been awesome!"
Now that I think about it though, a lot of politics is all unseen by the majority of the public. Once the campaign fliers come down, the media and audience looses interest. Post-Voter Apathy (PoVA).
Maybe that's just what I have, Pre-Voter Apahty (PreVA). I feel cruddy, so I don't feel like talking to these smiling candidates to learn about their causes, and if I'm given a ballot, I'll just as likely write-in the obviously-joking "Vote Charizard" posters I've been seeing around campus. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see if once I get better I'm suddenly chipper enough to actually stop and listen to a candidate, even for five minutes between classes.
[Vote Potter for President: Because he's the Chosen One, and Charizard isn't]
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