Knowledge & Apathy In Our Human Community.
The past few days I have found myself attacked aggressively by the social criticism, and political philosophy I have been reading. I personify the wealth of knowledge I have found in these works because the more I have read, the more alive the become. Engulfing my mind’s eye. I see in my daily doings, in the doings of others, and more tragically in the environment that surrounds me [New York] the Huxleyian world I now find myself in. T.V seems to be the only source of information that most people use to learn about the world. My conversations are devoid of any self-reflection. Ruminating about whether or not one is similar to Snooki may count as self-reflection to some. My standards are not in line with such thinking. I don’t want this become an empty rant about the my observations, so I will attempt to present some sort of argument.
Simply, our culture has fallen victim to mass apathy. No questions are asked. People seem to argue in abstractions that are weakly substantiated. It is one of the main reasons, in my opinion, that the Occupy Movement failed. We are all upset about something. Must of us have caught wind of the foul stench that ensues from general unrest and unhappiness, yet, we are too caught up in our humdrum lives to do anything about it. The idea of sacrificing our time, money, or character for the sake of changing, not necessarily bettering, our lives seems all too daunting a task. How does this relate to apathy? Apathy is not just not caring, but its turning your back to the things you seems to care about. The latter seems much worse to me than the former. How does one have the gall to complain, without 1. being well informed about the facts and, 2. without deciding to either find out more about the things that seem to be bringing them down, or doing something to change it.
The aforementioned criticism is about social justice, it is about media, it is about American government, it is about our daily lives and the people we see. We are all so cruel to one another when we know that every single one of us is suffering inside because we are being crushed under the foot capitalism. Our sense of individualism has truly made islands of use. We are not a community, a group of people sharing a common space and common resources. We are strangers to one another, apathetic to the cries we hear, the suffering we see. We don’t extend a hand because it isn’t our business. It’s all about business now. Humanity is not a business, it is a state of being that you are not excluded from. Be a part of it, be a part of the community.
Learn about your world, about the people that inhabit it, and about yourself. Once you have the tools at your disposal, act in whatever way you see fit, but do something.
I realize that this turned out being a rant. I did say ‘attempt’.
