Apathy

Apathy is the “lack of interest in anything, or the absence of any wish to do anything.” I bring this up because of two recent comments. Well, one specific quote from a student and another generic observation about our culture as a whole.

First, I overheard a couple of junior students discussing the PSAE in April. One girl caught me off guard when she said, “I don’t really care about that test, it really is not that important.” The other student did not necessarily disagree with her, which is JUST as upsetting to me.

The second is our culture as a whole that has developed the attitude that “if it doesn’t relate to me then I don’t need to pay attention to it.” So we have developed into a society that does not care about moral principles, politics, or the entrepreneurial spirit and have replaced those ideals with entertainment and self gratification. We do what we want, when we want, where we want, how we want, and with whom we want. An attitude of satisfy me. It has led us to where we are as a society.

Without getting into a super long and detailed history of how I think we have developed this complacent attitude, I want to simply challenge us all to adopt a new attitude. One that states: My actions impact others. It would mean a switch of focus from “me” to “we,” or at the very least, “you.”

There is an old idea that used to exist in human history. Societies have built countries on this seemingly strange philosophy. We have gotten so far away from it that it seems ancient, like walking into an old library and taking that book off of the shelf covered in dust. You know the one. You open it and it has that smell. Old. Yellowed and crispy pages. Fragile, must be very careful. You can actually hear the pages crinkle when you turn them. Yeah, THAT book. But you begin to read its pages and realize that it actually makes sense. It talks about a society where people were actually afraid to do something wrong and get caught. In getting caught they shame not only their family, but also the whole neighborhood. The neighborhood would look out for each other. Families were close knit. Parents would have such a close interaction that they would have no problems correcting someone else’s children, and they would EXPECT other parents to correct their own children. This society lived in fear of heavy punishment if they were even thinking of doing something against the societal norms. So they complied and lived very happy lives. They knew that there were liberties within those norms. Laws were made, not for the oppressive rulers to keep their loyal subjects under a strict system, but to keep those erring few in compliance with human rights. You know, keep murderous thinkers from actually killing. Keep thieves from taking from other people. To keep family values pure, not self-indulgent. We have lost this way of thinking. We think, "My actions only effect . . . ."

How did you finish that thought? If you said “me” then I want you to examine the source of why our politicians are so out of touch. Why Congressional approval rates were approaching single digits. Why our President’s numbers are unsatisfactory. Examine why our debt ceiling is being raised to 14 TRILLION. And education . . . do we really want to understand why our scores are so low when compared to other industrialized nations. Like bottom three in math and science out of thirty. Now let’s talk about business, banking, real estate. On and on and on. Could it be that we have lost that sense of “my actions impacting others”? Apathy?

Would it be such a bad thing to reopen that book, learn what made our country so great, learn what our great grandparents knew: things that taught them how to survive during war and bankruptcy and Depression? Would it be so bad to actually KNOW what our elected officials are doing with our vote? Would it be so bad to do well on a test to not only gain the best opportunity for personal advancement but also see to it that fewer obstacles are there for the next group? I mean, THAT is what our parents do for us, our grandparents for them, our forefathers for our new nation. Where did WE lose that? When did we replace principles like hard work, honor, dignity, trust, generosity, and stewardship with apathy? And are we satisfied with the results?

I am not.

And what if you answered that statement earlier with “everyone”? If you did, then you must be weird, strange, different. You are not conditioned to think like that. Our society does not promote that. If you really did think that . . . .

WELCOME! I am glad you are awake. Now go wake up your neighbors.