“Dear Apathy: You’ve Trumped us” is a short call to action (written 2/27/17) by musician Joshua Thomas, who has published three opinion articles with The Huffington Post. I believe the article's intended audience was for anyone, though probably not aimed at the elderly who vote and are more civically engaged.
The writer makes the claim that American's are more disengaged from one another than ever before which has lead to Trump’s election. Though American media consumption isn’t the sole reason for Trump’s election, he proposes that it is the most troubling.
He argues that private-life privatization happened with the advent of television and got worse with media moving more and more into the nooks and crannies of people’s lives. Thomas supports that claim with a study by Robert D. Putman in 1996 which showed a decline in civic engagement:
“from 1965 to 1985, membership in community groups such as the PTA, Red Cross, the Elks club, and labor unions was down by 50 percent. Surveys also showed collective political participation down in huge percentage points from the 1970s to the 1990s.”
While Thomas asserts that television is to blame for the initial slide away from communal engagement, it is unclear whether he means to say that this was Putmans conclusion as well. From this point, his argument sort of slides into liberal soap-boxing to pick up arms, get off the couch and into the street. A cute quote, “the time has come for us to begin looking at each other again and to throw the selfie out the door.”
I don’t disagree with his statements, but I don’t think that his call is particularly helpful or new. The post Trump liberal mediasphere is plastered with appeals for change with little detail or direction. Perhaps he could be more specific: how did this media saturated election not get consumers out to vote? Could he make a stronger link between online news consumption and level of civic engagement? Could he divulge into why we are staying in our bubble more? What is it he propose we do once we are in the street?
He argues that organized protests like the Womens March are unignorable and catalyze change. To throw aside online discussion, go out and revolt. While I agree that protests are great for morale, I believe the days of large protests influencing policy based on showup alone are over. Let’s recall a similar administration during the Iraq war. George Bush jr. blatantly stated he wouldn’t be affected by world wide protests, anger fell to the wayside, and the occupation lingered on.
At the Austin Women's march I saw thousands of people walking hand in phone, live-feeding their experience. I spent more time reading or watching coverage about the march than actually there. A great contribution to morale was that we all saw each other on our facebooks and televisions. I don’t see a future where the “revolution will not be televised”. I’m not arguing that civil disobedience isn’t working. I’m arguing for this musician to make more substantive pleas. Go deeper, including in critiques against society and what to be done about it. “Seize the means of production!” could make for a hit pop song right about now.
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