State propaganda broadcaster Manx Radio is really trying to work hard for its public service subvention moolah with the general election coming up and has done some fairly good stuff so far on the political engagement side of things. But its YouTube vox-pop piece of yesterday on what young Manx people are looking for in 2021 was quite revealing in a way in relation to why our young aren't successfully being politically engaged despite the fact that in the Isle of Man from the age of 16 they are allowed to vote.
The full piece is here and its worth any 2021 candidate reviewing:
As Richard Hell declared in 1976 - I belong to the blank generation and I can take it or leave it each time and watching that clip at face value the reality seems to be that little has changed in the intervening 45 years. Although it has to be observed that there's been a clear 360 degree turn in relation to taking it or leaving it which appears to have gone from active political disengagement which created self-interested de-centralised change to movements comprising of what is often now referred to as wokery or political correctness creating a disengaged culture of passive demands and wider collective disengagement on social media [perhaps with a bit of statue toppling on the side]. Which to the cynics amongst us perhaps creates an odd irony of a generation passively and indirectly asking for things from the generation that took it all in for themselves the first place.
Our general take home from this vox-pop is that outside of wider issues which are global in their impact and inequalities [BLM, LGBTQ+, Climate Change etc] few really seem to know what they actually want to be delivered right on their doorstep. So for any young Manx person reading this first and foremost it should already be obvious to you that Joe Bloggs Independent Candidate for Douglas North, South, or East knocking on your mum and dads door cannot as one person on their own do anything about climate change, racial inequality, or any of these other major global issues. So if these are the issues that concern you first and foremost you should maybe be asking why there is hardly any party politics in the Isle of Man as at least a party structure is going to potentially act as a better catalyst for change on these wider issues you say are so important to you.
But regardless of that it seems that nobody is politically reaching out to them either [although as they say in the clip they probably wouldn't vote for anyone who reached out to them anyway so it sounds like a possible doomed cycle of wasted effort on all sides].
As we've said before this election seems to be fast becoming the realm of the professional all inclusive Care Bears. Either of the individual post-covid, lets all have a hug and cycle to work in the new-normal variety, or the wider collectivised Care Bear movements of either the Greens or the Manx Labour Party pushing wider social agenda's. Which to us is where this perceived void then gets a bit confusing.
If the big issues concern you [as the Manx Radio vox-pop seems to suggest in relation to young people] then why do you even care about hearing the optimistic yet empty promises of someone who used to be a taxi driver, or a school teacher, or a landscape gardener demented Alan Partridge clone telling you that they're going to change your world if you vote for them when they won't and they can't. At least seek out Manx Labour, or the Greens, or even [if you can work out what they stand for this week] Liberal Vannin who all at the very minimum have a sporting chance of delivering on some of the wider issues that you say are important to you.
Equally - IOM political parties Manx Radio has just shown you the pond you need to fish in much more actively right now. And where the pond is [on social media].
Richard Hell & the Voidoids
