Tempest

Tuesday 29 July 2008

The new trend: Apathy

The death toll of the recent bomb attacks in Ahmedabad is now 45.

People called their friends and relatives to check how they were doing and continued living their busy lives. The media wrote a few aricles detailing the areas of the bombings, the toll figures and a few impressive statements from political leaders against such violence. People opened their newspapers the next day and grunted, some discussed it over morning chai and ranted, then threw the papers aside and resumed their routines. Life must go on. The day after, the papers and news channels did a few routines about how brave the shopkeepers are that they continued to go to work and how important it is for the economy to continue running as normal. Nobody thinks a protest against these attacks is necessary. Nobody thinks it is important to to shut down shops to impress upon the government that we want forces mobilised to find out who is behind this and we want them punished. Life must just go on.

We have become strong. We have learnt to compartmentalise our emotions and set them aside and continue living. Emotions aren't important anymore. Empathy and consideration are a weakness today. A girl in our neighbourhood gets raped. How does it matter? We read news like that in the newspaper all the time. Its normal. People get mobbed. 'Oh! that's so terrible, but they didn't die did they?' And if they did, 'well people die all the time!'

Friends meet. 'my mom is really unwell...her cancer is getting worse.' A gushing response, 'Oh thats so sad, you must be very brave'. We just don't care anymore. We don't want to get involved in anything. We don't want to get our hands dirty. It reflects in our reactions, our actions, our sentiments. Everything is intellectual. We discuss the causes and effects of cancer, we discuss with great importance the causes and effects of terrorism but we wouldn't give a damn if some big bully beats up a scrawny kid in an alley right in front of us. 'Its not our problem...lets just get out of here.'

We've learned to turn a blind eye to most happenings in an extremely clever manner. We hide behind our intellect. It's easy. Show your concern through a few high flying words, eat a little bhel puri, get a few accepting nods from peers and get out of there. You've done your bit of appearing concerned in a social gathering.

An employee discusses with fellow colleagues a very unjust practice of the upper management. All are in agreement that it is unfair. When the employee sends out a letter the next day for all to sign, not more than 5% do. 'If it doesn't directly affect us, why bother? I'd rather not get into trouble!' Sounds like a minor pin prick in the larger picture, but this is a reflection of who we are as a race.

We just don't care anymore. The instinct to really do something about anything has almost disappeared. It's been a long while since I saw someone doing something as simple as helping another at a tube station, giving up their seat for an older person, carrying a suitcase up the stairs for a young girl, going out of their way to help friends without feeling that it's a big deal.

Today, we are all achievers in our own ways. We have good jobs, lead busy lives and follow modern trends of success. We are proud of ourselves and who we have become. We don't notice it when we talk rudely to a waitor, we don't notice it when we belittle a friend who knows less than us on a particular subject, we don't notice it when we walk a little too quickly for our grand parents, we don't notice it when we break something our parents have preserved for years and simply offer to replace it with the tons of money we earn without even a sincere apology. We don't notice it when we carelessly litter in public places. We don't notice it when we use foul language in front of children with impressionable ages, we don't notice the world anymore. Yet, we are proud of ourselves. We are proud that we live in apathy.

I wonder what it will really take to shake us up? I wonder what would tug at our heart strings? I wonder what would squeeze a little bit of blood into our dry hearts...

"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Posted by Pavitra :: 03:59 :: 11 comments