Recently, I've found it hard to get interested in anything political -- not politicians, not their scandals, not political theory, not new legislation, not optimal policy design. I would not say that I have become alienated, just disinterested, apathetic.
I won't try to discuss the causes of my apathy, because that would be rather boring itself, I just want to explore whether I should care. I want to argue, perhaps controversially, that apoliticality is a good thing.
Premise: Interest is a finite resource. I have not heard this stated by science, but I assume it is true. There seems to be very few exceptions to the rule 'X is a finite resource', even with human emotions. This premise is not very important because even if interest is infinite, time certainly is not.
Premise: Interest is best spent on topics which can either (1) improve your life, or (2) help you better understand your place in the universe. Because interest (or at least time) is scarce, we should try not to spend it haphazardly.
Premise: Except for a small group of people, taking an interest in politics does neither. A small group of people whose career is closely related to politics -- political scientists, political correspondents, politicians -- could improve their lives by taking an interest in politics, just like a small group of people could improve their lives by taking an interest in the weather, or geology, or 19th century knitting. Political institutions certainly matter, and are arguably one of the most important factors to economic prosperity, but unless you have an exceptional amount of money or influence, your political opinion is worth about as much (little) as your vote. To me, even the political influence of U.S. senators seems vanishingly small considering their tiny vote share.
Conclusion: Except for a small group of people, politics is a suboptimal use of interest.
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