I Don't Know - the Smarter choice

I don't know about you, but quite often there seems to me only one sensible answer the questions posed in these attempts to canvass opinion: I don't know.

But that's not really what I mean. What I really mean is: "it depends". And for that reason, I might not answer.

Yet the standard way for pollsters to treat people like me is to ignore them.

"Excluding don't-knows and no answers" say the reports, before telling us that most of us think we should or shouldn't do this or that. It's as if the "don't knows" haven't been paying attention while the "no answers" don't care.

Strip out the apathetic and the ignorant and see what's left, they seem to say.

But isn't it at least arguable that we've thought about it and decided uncertainty is the best response?

Tax rises? When, for who, how much, for how long, for what purpose? Maybe, maybe not. It depends.

Climate change unstoppable? Now where did I put my crystal ball and my vast science library?

Alien life-forms? Unless you've bumped into one lately, withholding judgement seems reasonable enough.

Maarten Hajer, an academic, says that apart from holding reasonable doubts, many people are "citizens on standby". They don't show up in surveys, but they are "people with many political skills... who are not necessarily interested in employing them".

That passivity can change in an instant. Those who "[show] up in surveys as 'not interested in politics', they can transform overnight into activists".

The "don't cares" and "don't knows" may appear meek and mild in the abstract conditions of a survey. But when an issue is real, specific and maybe here and now, they can quickly change to "do care" and "do know".

In short, it depends. But as to whether these people are apathetic or ignorant? They may be. They may be anything but. And if you want to know what might turn citizens on standby into active citizens with strong opinions… ask the don't knows.

Darwin & Mars

A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret.

Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice.

Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest".

What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem.

By a bizarre twist, this great imperial experiment may hold the key to the future colonisation of Mars.

Saint Binew

The Church of Saint Bob the Agnostic is pleased to announce the elevation of K Roth Binew to the ranks of Discordian Saints (First Class)

"I drink to bring myself down to the level of the common man. But remember: the common man drinks, so I must drink twice as much! "