Fighting my own apathy

Reading Johnson's blog entry the other day made me wonder what's wrong with me. Once upon a time, and it wasn't that long ago, I could watch the news and have an opinion about quite a few of things going on. Not only could I have an opinion, but I could generally articulate an argument.

Now? I can't recall the last time I watched the news. It's been even longer since I've watched the news and felt anything resembling surprise. Amish student brings gun to school, shoots 10. No reasons given. Huh. Bush eats a piece of shit he found on his farm? Not surprising. California fell into the Pacific, Republicans feel this helps them in the upcoming Presidential election. I believe it. Seriously, I think the only thing left that could surprise me is if they started telling positive stories on Cable News. Teacher loved by his students. That's a headline that would surprise me, unless of course it was closely followed by, He loved them a little too much, if you know what I mean.

Where did all my apathy come from? Could be 9/11. In a very real way, that was the last time I actually engaged myself in the news. Could be Bush's re-election in 2004. The amazing lack of historical perspective that went into the inasion of Iraq is a distinct possibility as well. In all reality though, I'm sure it was all of these events and their coverage, combined with a couple of other factors that led to my general not-giving of a shit.

1. The collective dumbing down of conservatism. Seriously, the fact that people think being against gay rights or abortion makes them politically conservative is disgusting to me. (Never mind the fact that in the year 2007 we are still having debates with supposedly intelligent people arguing over whether or not a segment of our population has the right to marry eachother.) This is not to say that liberalism is in better shape, but liberals piss me off less than religious zealots masquerading as a false conservative.

2. It's becoming increasingly obvious to me, that my vote does not matter. At least I don't live in a state like Ohio or Florida, where peoples votes aren't even being counted before they're ignored.

3. My job bores me.

Throw all those things in a blender. mix until smooth. What have you got? Me asleep on the couch, feet up, mouth open, puddle of drool forming, remote in hand, thumb permanently on the channel up button, with dreams of sugarplums floating in my head.

Aww, screw it. I'm going home.