On the Dangers of Apathy=by Peter S. Lopez

[PETER S LOPEZ]

http://tinyurl.com/yzkmj3l

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Main Entry: ap•a•thy
Pronunciation: \a-pə-thē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek apatheia, from apathēs without feeling, from a- + pathos emotion — more at pathos
Date: 1594
1: lack of feeling or emotion: impassiveness
2: lack of interest or concern: indifference

Keeping in mind the above lexical definition of apathy, let us look at the crucial role of apathy in society. Who has no feeling or emotion? Why would one individual have no genuine interest or compassionate concern for helping others, for giant global events or high spiritual matters? Why be impassive and indifferent in the emotional realm to what does not concern us on a personal level when in the cosmic context of connected reality all of us are related, connected and intertwined together upon Mother Earth?

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.”
~ Dr. Carl Gustav Jung {1875-1961}

What are you apathetic about in the world? Naturally there is some stuff in life that does not interest you, though the same stuff may fascinate others. We all have our own different personal interests, likes and dislikes, which make each of us special. Sometimes we are apathetic to our own personal and social interests that we ignore or neglect to our own detriment, such as, our own personal health and well-being, certain aspects of our social relationships or business priorities we put off and procrastinate until they can no longer be ignored. We can become broke and bankrupt out of our own apathy.

Sometimes we have gone through so much trauma drama, personal tragedy and pain in this life that on the outside we exhibit no natural feeling or real emotion. We are dead on the inside without any real spirit or zest for life. Witness the sad apathy of the condemned prisoner waiting for his solitary doomsday. See the passive apathy of people who have been so beating down hard by life they no longer offer any real resistance. Some become so numb to the nightmare of existence that they numb out with drugs in order to not feel the pain, stress or suffering of life. Other times we get sidetracked in useless dumb distractions that take our immediate focus away from what we should be paying close attention to. Without conscious awareness we can hide our feelings even from ourselves and show no lively emotion whatsoever when a given situation before us calls for it. Or we pretend to be in the best of all possible worlds faking it in a make-believe world. Or we can give up and resign ourselves to an empty existence of constant dread, drudgery and darkness without a good fight.

“Apathy is one of the characteristic responses of any living organism when it is subjected to stimuli too intense or too complicated to cope with. The cure for apathy is comprehension.”
~ John Dos Passos {1896>1970} ~ http://tinyurl.com/ygfplce

We need to comprehend that apathy can kill! We forget to turn the stove off or lock the back door. We fail to take life-saving steps for our own wellness. It can leave one in a lazy funk without energy and enthusiasm; being content to just let things slide if they do not affect one personally as civilization crumbles into scattered pieces all around us. Apathy can result in someone not paying close attention to crucial elements in life that can impact on our very survival. It can take many different forms and is not always apparent when it is happening. Like boredom, apathy can be a quiet silent killer, a hidden assassin we let prowl around us. There can be personal apathy when we neglect our own personal hygiene, wallow in our own waste or let others throw their waste on us. There can be social apathy when we have no concern about politics or who is in charge of governing our lives. We mindlessly leave such social control to others until we are carted off to the concentration camp for not being obedient to the established fascist order.

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
~ Plato {428>348 BC}

In general, apathy is ultimately a sign of ignorance, a quiet underlying fear of the truth about life, about us, about what is really going on in the world. For example, one can be apathetic about politics, not care, see all politicians as corrupt and be automatically turned off by the mere mention of politics. A distain for all forms of politics is used as a kind of twisted rationalization for not being aware of current events, for not participating in electoral politics and failing to perform our social duty as responsible global citizens by exercising our right to vote. So we lazily leave the running of the world to others who do not represent our survival interests without casting our votes as registered voters in democratic elections.

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
~ Robert M. Hutchins {1899>1977} ~ http://tinyurl.com/ygaez85

In conclusion, we all need to be alive, awake and aware as to what is really going on in the big world. Smash all manifestations of greedy selfishness and see your own true self-interest interconnected with the collective survival interests of the human family. Give a damn and help ease the suffering of others whenever and wherever you can with compassionate direct action here and now. Combat evildoers not with whining and complaining but with your own good deeds in connected reality.

“Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all--the apathy of human beings.” ~ Helen Keller ~1880-1968

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