Students and Politics: How can one make enlightened decisions?
Translation: Árni Pétur Árnason
Taking your first steps in politics can be quite overwhelming and it can be challenging to navigate the political landscape. We ourselves know how hard it can be to weed through numerous political parties and policies and to keep an eye on which promises the parties have kept and broken. Therefore, we hope to provide you with some tips on how you can gather information and make educated decisions because your opinion matters and everyone can make a significant impact.
What are your principles? What do you care about?
To start with, it is useful to sit down and think about which issues are nearest to your heart, whether you have a determined drive for a particular subject. Are you anxious about the effects of Climate Change? Do you think mental health issues could be handled better? Is the situation of the rental market worrying you? These are all things that concern politics and the first step is therefore to determine your own values. Going by our own experiences, we can say that once we realized how political our worries are, we started following current affairs more closely as well as began caring about how the issues are handled. As soon as you solidify your own value system and how those issues can impact your day-to-day life, it becomes significantly easier to navigate politics and stand firm on your opinions. If it is societal anxieties that inspire your interest in politics, it may help to find solidarity with people who hold the same beliefs and are fighting for the same causes. Politics can deliver us the tools needed to fight these problems.
Where do we find information?
The next step is finding a political party that aligns to your principles and shares the same worries and concerns. This just so happens to be what most people find the hardest is gathering information on the parties and following current political movements. It is good to start sifting through the party websites, scan their manifestos and possibly note on a piece of paper what it is that stands out. It can also be helpful to check out what you agree and disagree on and ask yourself if there is anything missing that you care about. We additionally recommend checking out websites like kosningavitinn.is and kjosturett.is and to take their surveys to get a better idea of which parties correspond to your principles. Following the news regularly is an easy way to get up-to-date information on current affairs and how the parties are handling various issues. Most media sources have a subcategory named Politics/Elections (or something to that degree) where you can access political news. For people who need help remembering to read the latest political affairs, it can be helpful having all such entries in one place.
Open briefings can be a good place for gathering information since reporters often get a chance to ask important questions at the end of the briefing. Political parties often offer field trips for university students and hold open events, where it may be possible to speak directly to a politician or party member by making contact on social media or by email and get answers that way. Before elections, it is even possible to show up to campaign offices and chat with party members.
YOU can make an impact
Everyone can make an impact, you don’t need to know a lot about politics to be allowed to have opinions and partake. It is therefore important that students realize their ability to make an impact by voting, taking part in party activities or just by having conversations with friends and acquaintances.
If you want to participate in party activities, a good way to do that is by showing up to their youth movement events to get a sense of their values. From there, you can decide if you want to join the movement and even possibly run for a leadership position. This can be a good way to take one’s first steps towards taking a seat in parliament.
It is important to note that no single party is likely to share all your principles. It is alright to follow a few different parties, even though their opinions differ on other issues. It is also fine to disagree with friends and family, be unsure or change your opinion. Neither do you have to share your opinions with others if you do not want to, but do not let it stop you if you feel like you don’t know enough about politics. Everyone must start somewhere and nobody can become a political expert overnight. Remember that you are always entitled to have an opinion on the issues you care about.
We know that the general election has now passed but politics is so much more than just a quadrennial event, they are constant all throughout the year. We hope these tips have been useful to you so that you can make enlightened decisions on how the country's governance is conducted and who you want to fight for your interests.