power-elite brainwashing sheep 1984 brave new world etc. and all that, but the fact is most people are apathetic because the vast majority of them have enough to eat, have safe place to live and sleep, are more free from disease and sickness and violence and oppression than any other people in human history, and so on. utopic revolutionary societies are a pleasant idea, but not a worthy goal when the risk is losing everything and the gain is only regaining what you risked in the first place. marcusian doomsday messages won't resonate when most people are satisfied with what they have.
most people's sense of complacency may be a fault of a lack of vision for the future, but otherwise their satisfaction is perfectly warranted. as a species we may have problems, but let's not pretend we're doing so poorly.
It isn't apathy that's the real problem, anyway; it's a persistent lack of perspective that plagues us. It's easy to get caught up in the rhetoric about free markets and liberalism and socialism and marxism and libertarianism, in republicans and democrats and what have you, but none of those ideals are based in actual human experience. the reality is civilization is just a bunch of humans struggling to get along as best they can, and there's no overarching principle that defines or explains how it all works. pragmatism may not be as sexy or as emotionally fulfilling as idealism, but it's, ironically, the only ideal that will get us to where we want to go (wherever that is). part of that is recognizing where we're doing great, and what we need to do to make sure we're still doing that well in fifty years.
peace.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★[This message has been edited by Meteora (edited 04-11-2011 @ 04:42 PM).]