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Comment by itake | Hacker News Reader

> If none exist, consider running yourself.

Setting expectations of "don't like it? Well quit your job, give up 12 mo of your life to campaign and fix it yourself!" is not healthy for our society.

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And yet, this is how our system works. We all need to participate and realize that politics is not a career -- it is part of living in such a system, and a part of our responsibility as citizens. The only way we are going to fix things is if we fix it ourselves.

I have tried in the past as well. Political apathy is a very real, very dangerous vulnerability in our system of government, and is being exploited all the time.

> The only way we are going to fix things is if we fix it ourselves.

The word "we" is pulling a lot of weight in that statement. All politics suffers a free rider problem. We'll fix it if we fix it, sure, but I don't have to be part of that.

The recursion in how one would effect change like this amuses me.

But this is by design since policy affects all.

at a certain level, somebody has to think like that, otherwise nobody except power hungry psychopaths would be in politics.

Direct action matters, and to dismiss it as "not my responsibility" is shirking the entire point of democracy.

Could you start small? if you live in a smaller city/village do you need to quit your job for 1 year to attempt to get a sit in the council?

Pressuring your representatives to do something about it, and helping others get mad about it too, and encouraging them to encourage their representatives likewise, is probably the most bottom-up response possible. It can do enormous good, but of course can also go nowhere.

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