Reflective Journal 4: Reflect on youth apathy. You may choose reflect on how far you deem yourself to be an apathetic youth by referring to examples from China, the United States and/or Singapore.
Youth nowadays have often been referred to as politically apathetic, which means that the youth are uninterested and do not care about the politics of their country. Political apathy amongst youths ought to be avoided in countries, as it can easily cause problems in both the government and subsequently, the country should political apathy amongst youths be left unchecked. The youths of today will be the future political leaders of the country, and should the youths be politically apathetic there will be no one to lead the country in the next generation.
Political apathy in youths is very apparent in countries such as China. In China, many youths do not want to get involved in politics and information about sensitive political topics such as political detainees are filtered out. For example, in China’s most popular search engine Baidu, searches on sensitive topics such as political detainees Ai Weiwei are totally filtered out. Instead you get results of a female model with a similar name. When the youth are denied access to most forms of political information, naturally youths will become politically apathetic, losing interest in politics altogether. Another factor would be that China practices a one party rule, with the appointment of China’s leaders having almost nothing to do with its citizens, thus causing many Chinese youths to become politically apathetic. Furthermore, the Chinese government has shown clearly that it will resort to any means in order to crush and forms of opposition and threats to its rule. The Tiananmen Incident of 1989 was a perfect example, when China mobilised its army in order to crush mostly peaceful protests for democracy by students and youth activists. With the government showing that it is willing to use deadly force to quell even youths who demand for political change, many youths are put off and choose to remain politically apathetic. In recent years, outspoken political opponents of the Communist Party have all been arrested and shut up, with a prominent example being aforementioned Ai Weiwei. As such, the youths of China know very well that politics is very risky, causing many youths to lose interest in politics. An example of such apathetic youths would be the Me Generation, a generation of materialistic youths in China who are politically apathetic, ignoring politics in their pursuit for material welfare. As the Me Generation of China summarises very well, “There’s nothing we can do about politics, so there’s no point talking about it or getting involved.”
In comparison, youths in USA are less politically apathetic compared to the youths of China. First of all, youths in USA benefit from freedom of speech, and information does not get filtered out like in China. Americans can freely express their views on politics, and as USA practices democracy, with a two party rule, youths have a say in the appointing of their leaders, and have the power to appoint the ruling party through voting. As such, youths in USA have more incentive to actively participate in politics compared to their Chinese counterparts. Furthermore, USA is experiencing an economic downturn compared to the economic boom China is undergoing, and many of the youths believe that political change is necessary, causing many youths to abandon their political apathy and vote in the 2008 presidential elections. As a result, the highest percentage of youth voters turned up for the elections, 58% of youths, since youths were allowed to vote in 1976. From this, it can be seen that youths in USA are getting more and more actively involved in politics.
Personally, I feel that I am rather politically apathetic, like most of my peers in Singapore are. I believe that political apathy amongst youths is caused more by a fast paced lifestyle and a heavy workload. Personally, I have to deal with homework, tests, revision and still have enough time for socialising. This leaves youths like me with little time to concern ourselves with politics, leading to political apathy amongst youths. Another important reason for this is that although Singapore does practice democracy with an election system, the PAP has remained in power for 48 years, and having done an excellent job of governing Singapore, no one expects the PAP to lose power in the near future. In elections, many are not concerned with whether PAP remains in power, but by how many seats they would win. With the overall results of elections obvious before the election even begins, many youths lose interest in politics, choosing to focus on more pressing matters such as studies. I, too, didn't bother staying up late to watch the election results, since the PAP was going to win anyway.
In conclusion, political apathy is present in China, USA and Singapore, though the youths in USA are getting more actively involved in politics. Furthermore, youth apathy is mainly caused by political states of a country, economic advances in countries and a busy and fast paced lifestyle.
