I see a lot of rather speculative character attacks (laziness, arrogance, etc), but very little in the way of actually addressing what Idaho or myself have said. An example of missing the point in this way can be seen below:

Quote Originally Posted by Tiaexz View Post
Whilst you dress it up eloquently, Seamus, it can paraphrased simply as: 'I don't feel like I am heard so I don't bother'. The solution to this is to make yourself heard.
The thing is that we don't reckon that engaging in the democratic process is the way to be heard. The problem isn't so much with the principle of democracy, as it is with the underlying social (and by extension, political) situation in this country. Since society is made up of competing interest groups who gain only from the loss of the other, a government can only really work for one such interest group, it can't represent or act on behalf of all society at once. Look at the 70's/80's - all the government on the left or right did was effectively wage a class war against the losing side from the most recent elections. Nothing has changed today, all that has happened is that the right now has free reign to do what it wants.

Recognizing that the problems with our democracy are systematic and thus choosing not to take part in it does not make my lazy or arrogant. As I said earlier, for my part I prefer engaging in civil society at a more grassroots level - far less combatitive and much clearer results.