In the dystopian world of 2020, has there ever been a more important time to use your vote? Systemic racism, a pandemic that closed down the world, and being lied to by the Tories have all been major features of this year and it's only June. Now that we're 17 seasons into Keeping Up with The Kardashians, it would appear that we are still very much engaged in celebrity culture and so if more of our favourite artists discussed politics within the public eye, would artists and celebrities discussing politics in the public eye encourage more engagement?
If we take the example of Stormzy, this is a man using his platform to engage people and invoke social change. Aside from being an outspoken Corbyn supporter, he has also set up a scholarship for black students, called out the Tory reaction to Grenfell, and used his historic Glastonbury set to make a statement about the institutional violence against people of colour, and as a result there has been a surge of young people who have suddenly become more interested in politics and learning what can be done to change the social situation. As a result of engaging young people by exploiting his platform, “The Stormzy Effect” has led to a 139% increase in black students at Cambridge since 2015 due to them feeling more represented and more inclined to apply to institutions previously seen as elite and unreachable and during the enrolment period for the 2019 elections, there was a record amount of young people registering to vote.
Even if a certain artist or influential individual doesn’t necessarily know who they are going to vote for, it is still important to use the public platform to encourage voting. If we throw back to when Russel Brand started encouraging people to rebel against a corporate society by not voting under the current democratic system, it became cool to not vote and having since seen the influence this statement made, Brand has done a U-turn on this position and outwardly supported Labour. Had the opinion not been put out there by a celebrity, it is debatable whether or not voting would have ever become a popular idea and if that is the case, despite Brand publicly stating that his beliefs have changed, has a level of damage been done that cannot be undone? Can every mind be changed as Brand’s was?
If it is the case that we have lost a portion of the potential voting public to the idea that voting doesn’t change anything, efforts to engage people to vote surely need to be focused on the younger voters who are either about to cast their first vote or have only voted a few times. Voting records show that in the past few elections, the under 35’s have overwhelmingly voted left-wing; however, the right still comes out on top due to the sheer number of older voters who are dedicated to turning up to the polling booths. In the age of the Instagram Influencer dictating fashion trends, holiday trends, and even trends of what and where we eat, political engagement is a trend that could be pounced upon. People ate detergent pods because they wanted to look cool on the internet so if we could bring that energy to making a selfie outside your polling station cool, the engagement of young people would most likely rise.
At the end of the day, if you have the influence to get people earning £7.83 an hour to go out and spend their money on your concert tickets, albums, or merchandise, you have the influence to get people to make their voices heard. If the line, “Fuck the government, and fuck Boris,” can get crowds of people screaming, it can get people down to the polls. No matter which way somebody wants to vote, people with such an influential platform should have an obligation to use it productively and engagingly.
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