Apathy Is Misunderstood
Why Human Progress is Driven by Caring Less
Apathy gets a bad name, but it probably shouldn’t care. Perhaps you could care less? Or is it you couldn’t care less? Honestly? Who cares? It doesn’t matter whether you know that apathy is one of the most important drivers of human progress and society. No one cares and they don’t need to. It doesn’t matter if you could care less or couldn’t care less… apathy will drive us forward regardless.
Etymology
Few people care about etymology either, but I do — so humor me. You won’t suffer much…
Today, most subscribe to the “without feeling” interpretation of apathy. I suppose people stopped caring that the true root of the word stems from a “freedom from suffering”.
Wow! Now that is a noble meaning, if there ever was one. To hell with all you World Peace types… bring on World Apathy!
Who Cares About Your Words?
No one cares and few will follow me down my little path to World Apathy. Nor should they. To do so, they will have to suffer the consequences and requirements of educating people on why that phrase is so powerful. That sounds like an annoying pain in the as$… and for what? What does getting the world to embrace a greater definition of apathy actually achieve? Not much. Words do change things… but so slowly and subtly, how can anyone waste their time with that?
But then again… it doesn’t matter. You are on that path regardless of whether you want to redefine the word. We all are. Apathy drives us. We all want to be free from suffering. We don’t want to suffer pain or ignorance or annoyance or distraction or anything really. We especially hate to suffer the drama and all those people constantly railing against apathy bring a whole lot of it.
Who cares about your drama?
For those anti-apathy types, it is really all about the drama. The sky is falling. The world is ending. Things will never be the same again.
Only that never quite happens, does it? The Nazis suck. Churchill was right about them all along. He was also right about Americans. We are the Masters of Apathy. In the end, when the suffering of doing nothing outweighed the suffering of taking action — we did. Did we time it exactly right? Who cares!
That may sound apathetic? It is. Could more lives have been saved if America went to war sooner? Perhaps. But perhaps not. Things are rarely so clear. That is why apathy is so powerful. Apathy is the closest thing to the cure for meaningless and inefficient action that society has.
The Dangers Of Passion
Passion is great — but it takes a lot of energy. Employing passion includes opportunity costs — but how many passionate people take time to do an opportunity cost analysis? How many passionate people take the time to understand the toll their need for action (and attention) burdens others?
The Boy Who Cried Wolf had a lot of passion, because it was so poorly placed — he actually created a lot of apathy. This is a real danger. When apathy is not high enough, we run the risk of wasting our time. This creates additional suffering and creates higher levels of apathy. When apathy becomes more like lethargy or ignorance, now you have a problem.
Suffering Comes In Many Flavors
Suffering builds character. It is a great teacher. Some say it is the essence of life. I would offer that life is really the balance of suffering and apathy. It is a subjective exchange. In economics, we trade money for products we want. The producers value our money more. We value the product more than our money. It is a win-win exchange.
Suffering is its own currency of exchange, a more emotional one. Those most willing to suffer in the name of any cause are those who feel it most. They educate, advocate, and sometimes demonstrate. Effectively, they increase the suffering of others. This is important. As a society, we don’t act when the problem becomes big enough to matter! We act when the incremental suffering created by early activists and advocates pushes us to that tipping point. Technically, we run a better risk in this scenario of acting a little early.
So Embrace Your Apathy
Apathy is a conservation of energy. It is societal efficiency. It allows us to ignore the noise and focus on the things that most matter to us. Progress comes through the focus and application of individual strengths. Focus on the few things you are most passionate about and let apathy handle the rest.
History is the long story of overcoming suffering. It is an ongoing drive for greater individual choice and freedom. We are driven to be free from suffering. We are driven to apathy. And that is a very good thing, regardless of whether anyone really cares.
