Apathy
I’m sorry, but sometimes its not apathy that causes a problem. Sometimes things just happen. That being said, I’m getting mighty tired of the words “apathy” and “entitlement”. It seems like whenever someone has a gripe, or problems we’re quick to jump on them as being one of those things, or both.
I propose that these two arguments are in and of themselves apathetic and entitled. I feel that they have become convenient blanket arguments to toss around insuring that we won’t have to do any research into the history or context of a situation.
- Lost your job? Guess you didn’t work hard enough.
- Upset your new [insert whatever here] busted…suck it up (i mean its not like you worked for that money that bought that thing…right?).
- Something negative happen to you? Guess it was something you must have done to invite it.
- Feeling a little strung out today because [insert issue that is stressing you out]? You’re just a big baby!
- Got cancer? Well its because you were apathetic and didn’t do enough pre-screening.
Wait…what? Run that last one by me again? Yes that is correct. There is a TED talk out there that actually blames cancer patients for getting cancer, which frankly, boggles my brain…because its wrong, and I’m surprised that we’ve reached that point where we accept blaming something like cancer, on…apathy? REALLY?
Now I’m not saying that apathy and entitlement don’t exist, there are people out there that are apathetic, and feel a sense of entitlement towards a lot of things. I’m also not a fatalist, and think that yes, there are things you do that affect your own life (for example getting drunk and trying to pet a grizzly bear is likely going to leave you with one arm). But remember that there’s also a whole host of crap that you juggle that frankly, has nothing to do with that. Its just shit that happens.
I also think that actual apathetic people are not as wide spread as we think, and that for the most part people work hard, and just want to see some value from that work…and that sometimes shit just doesn’t work out. Or in the case of Meslin over here, that maybe their environment has something to do with it.
So before you go telling someone “oh I guess you didn’t try hard enough…” how about you ask them what happened first? Its funny how often we just forget to ask questions.
And so ends my half-cocked post about apathy.
Mirrored from Nadine Lessio.