Voting is 'fun'

The world is incredibly helpful sometimes. I was wondering what on earth to write on here, only to have a reason to complain quite literally dropped into my lap.

The concept of myself voting has always been a rather fuzzy one. In the realistic sense, to me it seems to be a case of choosing between the equally useless to rule over the eternally unhappy. I could go on forever about how hopeless modern politicians appear to be (the fight for the centre ground, the appeal to fluffy abstract concepts, hysteria over whether or not it's offensive to call an old lady old, concern about making criminals think that the government is 'mean,' etc.) but voting has always seemed rather important. Voting, I thought, was a rite of adulthood, symbolic of maturity and part of an essential democratic tradition going back to Ancient Greek times. When you become eighteen you are granted this right; you are an adult, with a voice that can be heard. All well and good. Unfortunately, Basildon Council has different ideas about it all. Its letter to me has to be seen to be believed.

"The elections on 3 May this year will be your first opportunity to vote. To help first time voters, and to make the process a little more 'fun' the Council has signed up to a new service called the Election Alarm Clock. [...] You also get the chance to play the 'ele-jumper' game - see how far you can get the roller-skating elephant to jump."

What's next? Voting by your favourite colour - red, blue or green? Voting by which politician has the nicest smile? Would that be 'fun' enough?

Half of me is inclined to take the idea of a game involving a roller-skating elephant being of equal importance to voting as being offensive to specifically eighteen-year-olds. You don't grow up only to be treated like a child, needing encouragement in the form of fun-in-inverted-commas. The other half of me has had a blinding revelation. People are always complaining about how everyone is 'dumb' nowadays. All political correctness aside, they're 100% right. As a nation, we are dumber. One only needs to consult a previous generation's typical exam paper and the reality of the UK's slide down the European educational scale to see that. What was my blinding revelation, this 'black lightning' as author John Fowles put it? Letters like this are the reason.

Reality TV. Comedy in which the height of amusement is a well-timed fart. The 'everyone's a winner' policy which means that incompetence is counted as creativity. Assemblies in which students are urged to 'achieve their goals.' Letters to eighteen-year-olds (who are supposed to be well-nurtured, educated adults) putting elephants on roller-skates on par with voting. Any psychologist could testify the existence of self-fulfilling prophecies; a child which is treated as though it is stupid will feel it to be true, and is therefore unlikely to be academically gifted, to say the least. In an experiment, psychologists Rosenthal and Jacobson randomly chose 20% of elementary school children from 18 classrooms and told teachers that they were 'intellectual bloomers,' predicting that they would improve greatly over the next school year. The teachers believed that the children had been tested using a special IQ test. When Rosenthal and Jacobson returned, the 20% really had become 'intellectual bloomers.' Bringing it back to the main issue, if people are treated as though they are stupid, they will likely become so.

Roller-skating elephants? Excuse me? It makes one wonder what goes through the heads of those at the top of it all. Is there a guidebook for party members?

1. Always wear yellow and other happy colours!
2. Corect spellnig is scarry.
3. Barney the Dinosaur is cool.
4. Don't forget to smile!

The mind boggles.