The problem with Defeatism

I've seen too many people on my Facebook feed posting about how it's a waste of time to vote because the outcome of the EU referendum has been predetermined by a higher power, it's apathetic, it's defeatist, and it's one of the biggest problems regarding political discourse.

Defeatism in politics is very, very dangerous and all it does is help to maintain the conservative status quo. If you have the mentality that "one vote never made a difference" and that the higher powers are going to ignore the real outcome of the referendum because they've predetermined whether or not we're leaving, the message you're presenting is "things are a bit crap as they are, but I'm not going to do anything to try to make it better because it's not worth my time", you are accepting and essentially justifying injustice and inequality because you don't think it's worth your time because you don't think things can or will change - can you imagine how many inequalities would be able to continue if every protest group and every campaigner shared that mentality? The world we live in would be a very different, even darker place - it may not be quite as relevant in the case of the EU, but defeatism itself is a problem that needs to be defeated (pun intended).

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am very empathic towards those who are apathetic when it comes to politics and it's very easy to get into this defeatist mentality, but what you need to do is take the anger and resentment you hold against the status quo and use that to fight for a better tomorrow (ew cringe but I'm going somewhere with this). Tony Benn believed that there are two prerequisites for social change: "the burning flame of anger at injustice, and the burning flame of hope at a better world". I believe that defeatism encompasses that anger and upset at the way things are currently, but you're going to have a hard time bringing about social change if the only thing you are doing is sharing posts on Facebook.

Long story short, you think the outcome of the referendum has been predetermined? Fine, you can hold that belief, but you should still vote in the chance that it's not. Sitting on a fence is not progressive, so it saddens me to see people who claim to be radical and anti-establishment sitting back and doing nothing and essentially aiding conservative agenda. Also, FYI, you can be anti-establishment and a voter, the two things are not mutually exclusive.

If you haven't registered to vote in the referendum, this is probably just me screaming into the void but defeatism is a poison and I'd like to see a lot less of it from the left. If you did register, I hope you all go out and vote (cough cough remain).

The importance of voting

Political participation is one of our most valuable human rights, but it is one that 7.5 million people in the UK are not utilising as they're not registered to vote in the upcoming EU referendum. We are socialised with this belief that one vote never made a difference, but if all of the people who believed that (like the 34% of registered voters in 2015 who didn't vote and that's not even including the people who didn't register), it could and would swing the vote.

I completely understand why political apathy is at an all time high, especially amongst the youth. The political discourse that's often presented to us is overcomplicated and saturated with buzzwords, it confuses people and I wholeheartedly believe this is deliberate, it is done in the hope that the generally more open-minded, empathic youth don't get invested in politics and so we develop a cognitive dissonance so we feel disconnected from the issues that are being discussed. This tactic is used specifically to maintain the conservative status quo - we all joke about it being old, white men in government but the situation is as it stands because they are trying to keep the youth from getting interested. Youths tend to care about people, and this directly conflicts with conservative ideology. Long story short, it's dangerous for Tories to standardise political education in schools because if the youths became engaged in politics and all voted, the right would crumble.

For true, representative democracy (I'm not arguing that First Past the Post is representative, but I digress) 100% political participation is ideal. If you don't feel like any of the options available to you represent your political beliefs, you can spoil your ballot which is in itself a political statement but do not under any means just abstain from voting. As Owen Jones often says "we are standing on the shoulders of giants" - from the Chartists, to the Suffragettes, people have been fighting for our vote, fighting for democracy, for centuries. If you don't vote, you are actively dismissing and discrediting everything these people fought for. We cannot allow ourselves to be marginalised, our voice matters and political participation is a right we should protect at all costs.

The deadline for registering to vote in the EU Referendum is the 7th June - you can register here, it only takes about 2 minutes at most and the outcome of this referendum will affect youths most.