The vote is upon us
November 8th 2007 07:08
November 24th, my fellow Austalians, marks the day when we vote at federal level for either John Howard or Kevin rudd to take the wheel for the next 3 years. Yes, good for us, but judging from a few conversations I've had with my peers, there are some amoung us that have put little, if any, thought into who to vote for.
My favourite of the brainless statements I've come across so far is "I want to vote for the Greens because green is my favourite colour'. No, I am not kidding, and neither was she. Save me Jebus! With logic like this I really do wonder if we stand a hope in hell of paying less taxes and getting on board with established environemntal protocols. No seriously, how can you be so daft as to think that's the way to go about making such an important decision? But I am not hear to give my personal views, merely to provide you with a cross-section of Gen Y's plans, so on with the endeavour.
Others among us seem to be content with going with the flow; either voting for John Howard because he's the only Prime Minister they can remember or voting as the other memebres of their family do because this spares them from having to think it over for themselves. Indeed, why bother watching a debate between the 2 candidates or the nightly news for an update when you can just take someone else's stance and claim it as your own?
But surely not all those that fall into the category of Gen Y and/or 1st time voter think like this. Well, maybe not all... but just about.
The great majority have an idea of 'good' and 'bad' political party and thus, candidate, built up over the course of their lives from all those older people that have voted, stated the reason/s why and from celebrities that put forth a political view. Over time media presentation and the influence of belonging groups (thess being family, clubs etc of which a persaon is a member) work to put together an image of the parties and largley it is this vague depiction that mostly contributes to a person's decision come vote time. Certainly there are those few that actively watch and listen to proposed policies and stances, carefully evaluate the situation and then decide, but such members of Generation What is this Vote Thing are few and far between.
Dear generation Y, please give a hoot when deciding who to vote for.
Watch the news, right now stuff about the election is on every day. Google the election and the candidates to get an idea of who stands for what. And please make up your own mind- it'd be a damn shame if we ended up with a loon in power due to apathetic voting.
My favourite of the brainless statements I've come across so far is "I want to vote for the Greens because green is my favourite colour'. No, I am not kidding, and neither was she. Save me Jebus! With logic like this I really do wonder if we stand a hope in hell of paying less taxes and getting on board with established environemntal protocols. No seriously, how can you be so daft as to think that's the way to go about making such an important decision? But I am not hear to give my personal views, merely to provide you with a cross-section of Gen Y's plans, so on with the endeavour.
Others among us seem to be content with going with the flow; either voting for John Howard because he's the only Prime Minister they can remember or voting as the other memebres of their family do because this spares them from having to think it over for themselves. Indeed, why bother watching a debate between the 2 candidates or the nightly news for an update when you can just take someone else's stance and claim it as your own?
But surely not all those that fall into the category of Gen Y and/or 1st time voter think like this. Well, maybe not all... but just about.
The great majority have an idea of 'good' and 'bad' political party and thus, candidate, built up over the course of their lives from all those older people that have voted, stated the reason/s why and from celebrities that put forth a political view. Over time media presentation and the influence of belonging groups (thess being family, clubs etc of which a persaon is a member) work to put together an image of the parties and largley it is this vague depiction that mostly contributes to a person's decision come vote time. Certainly there are those few that actively watch and listen to proposed policies and stances, carefully evaluate the situation and then decide, but such members of Generation What is this Vote Thing are few and far between.
Dear generation Y, please give a hoot when deciding who to vote for.
Watch the news, right now stuff about the election is on every day. Google the election and the candidates to get an idea of who stands for what. And please make up your own mind- it'd be a damn shame if we ended up with a loon in power due to apathetic voting.
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Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three
I gave up hope when I saw a shameless interview between Ray martin and john howard last elections, the tipping point was:
Ray: and what of labors past economic performances?
John: I'm not willing to comment on that
Ray: Yes, interest rates above 10% under every labor government
(sic)
And thats supposed to be straight up and not slanted? The interviewer is taking shots at the opposition!
So long as the media is bought and paid for by the rich I won't trust it. Sometimes I think that ther should be a law against privately owned media empires, especially for news. It should be completely independent of any funding by people who have their own agenda but sadly isn't. Of course such talk leads us to another form of totalitarianism which sobers me up a little.
I'll probably end up voting greens, not because green is my fave colour (kind of ironic?) but because they advocate civil liberties more so than any other party. In this day and age when corrupt governments are just looking for more power to suck up to those with wealth and power it's best to just default to the group thats the least corporately influenced who advocate the most civil liberties.
Even if I don't agree with a lot of the green agenda they still by and large hold similar views with me.
Comment by Wynona Lavota
Generation Y Life
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three
Nothing good can come from throwing a drug addict in prison or subjectinghim/her to some crude form of rehabilitation. It's purely a health issue like smoking is and thats as far as anyone needs to look when tackling the issue.
Comment by Wynona Lavota
Generation Y Life
My issue is that if you legalise a drug for personal use (assuming that's what they plan to do) then isn't it hypocritical to not also decriminalise supplying a drug? Not that that's what I want, I'm just having trouble getting my head around that logic.
But as the Father of one of my friends says, a vote for the Greens is a vote wasted, lol. Although considering the amount of attention the environment has gotten this past year, I'm guessing the Greens will have a considerably larger amoung of votes this year than they have in previous years.