People say that indifference is evil. I agree with this. However, people also claim that the planet is not evil, or good, but indifferent. It is argued that this is a beautiful thing- no reason to be upset about it. This argument has no logical consistency. This seems to be the hallmark of the healthy person, from what I’ve observed- this ability to lie to yourself, to change the facts to fit your opinion, to make the world make more sense to you, so you can keep swimming through all this shit, so you don’t really give a fuck about children dying in other countries, in our own country, political prisoners, etc. I am told that, just like the planet, this indifference is fine, and even healthy. “If you can’t do anything about it, you SHOULD ignore it.” I can tell you it’s not fine to the child, or the prisoner.
But ME, I am human too, what am I ignoring? My friends that had abandoned me when I was begging for their help argued that my need for their attention was no different than their need to ignore me, because depression drags them down and they have shit to do, they gotta go to school, they got three and four kids to take care of, and who is right? Aren’t we both right? Where is the compromise? I feel so guilty for being so lonely. I know my needs are basic and human, but if no one can or is willing to provide them (company, companionship, someone to talk to, etc.) it doesn’t matter how basic they are- I become a giant pain in the ass to them for constantly talking about something they are not willing to provide.
People KNOW things deep down that they CONSTANTLY ignore, more or less on purpose. I think this is disgusting at best, and actively, horribly destructive at worst. Am I destroying myself by writing on this site? Is what I’m ignoring the fact that if I were healthy, this wouldn’t be a concern to me at all? I wouldn’t be on this site, I wouldn’t be feeling this way, blahblahblah? Thing is, I’m NOT ignoring it. I have often considered it, and think it is wrong. Because it was the way I was treated when I needed people. Indifferently. It IS evil. Everything is evil.
3 comments
Indifference is the opposite of love/hate, which are sides of the same coin.
Interesting post. I’ve thought a lot along similar lines but you put it very well.
I do think unfortunately blinkers are somewhat adaptive. Like allegedly there is science showing that pessimists are more right, but that optimists are happier and more successful. I read about it on a blog called “Barking Up The [sic] Wrong Tree”.
I guess it’s a balance. It’s good to direct your attention to the good stuff, but also to have a realistic view of the world.
The thing is though, that I think pessimists miss a lot of the picture as well. This is from a TED Talk by Don Norman:
‘And it turns out that when you’re anxious you squirt neural transmitters in the brain, which focuses you makes you depth-first. And when you’re happy — what we call positive valence — you squirt dopamine into the prefrontal lobes, which makes you a breadth-first problem solver: you’re more susceptible to interruption; you do out-of-the-box thinking. That’s what brainstorming is about, right? With brainstorming we make you happy, we play games, and we say, “No criticism,” and you get all these weird, neat ideas. But in fact, if that’s how you always were you’d never get any work done because you’d be working along and say, “Oh, I got a new way of doing it.” So to get work done, you’ve got to set a deadline, right? You’ve got be anxious. The brain works differently if you’re happy. Things work better because you’re more creative. You get a little problem, you say, “Ah, I’ll figure it out.” No big deal.’
YES- yesyesyes. I know there is no real answer, per se, but that is exactly what I’m talking about. Consistency in life in general is clearly a good thing, but need for too much consistency apparently indicates that you are mentally ill. I think tons of us probably have a hard time striking a balance. Thank you for listening 🙂 As for me, I’m gonna go listen to Kate Bush’s A Sky of Honey and remind myself that there is indeed still beauty somewhere in the world 😀
Oh yeah- and I also believe love and hate are part of the same coin, but I think indifference belongs within that coin, as well. I guess it’s just that I personally believe that it falls closer to the side of hate, rather than love 🙂