The Growing Epidemic That Is Apathy
There is a growing epidemic, one that infects the mind and body as well as the soul. It drains you, leaving a veritable shell of a human being. It’s easily spread, and it’s also easily identifiable by its symptoms: indifference, lack of energy and a disinterest that cannot be shaken. This sinister entity is labeled as apathy, and it can be the most dangerous condition known to man.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that simple, pure love is the motivating power behind all good things in the world. Accepting that, consider the following sentence: The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. This phrase exemplifies the sheer power of an absence of passion or caring. Many would perhaps believe that the opposite of love is in fact hatred, but the act of hating something is a feeling that requires effort from a person. Hatred takes energy, something the human brain has an infinite amount of. Hatred is no better than apathy, but it can perhaps be transmuted into a more positive feeling. Maybe the passion of hate was misinformed or misplaced.
Apathy requires no effort or energy from the brain, and yet it still makes one feel exhausted, as if any feeling or thought takes something to create. In fact, apathy is equated to Sloth, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was interpreted as a lack of faith and devotion to God, as this was during times when religion and its teachings were still of utmost importance to a society. The more modern understanding of apathy, we know now, comes from a human being experiencing something that they simply cannot handle. Instead of the brain attempting to reconcile and comprehend, it performs its own convoluted coping mechanism: a numbing, or “getting used” to the cause of the distress.
Distress being the main cause of apathy can help us deduce the potential reasons why one would be experiencing this feeling of indifference. Often, the indifference is a compulsion to avoid negative feelings. I myself am guilty of shutting down, in a sense. For example, growing up with an abusive sibling can make a person attempt to minimize their own feelings and mentally escape the situation. Being verbally berated and insulted almost daily forced my mind to shut down, lest I become overly stressed and distressed. My brain was protecting me, in a way. Instead of actively taking part in the (one-sided) argument, I would instead feel this pleasant numbness overtake my body. I would begin to agree with what she said, just to hopefully find an end to the encounter. Of course, this strategy backfired once the abuse became physical. I simply couldn’t bring myself to defend my body, even as she had a handful of hair yanking my head around. Looking back, I could theorize that a well-placed punch could have ended the physical abuse. After all, I was larger and stronger than she. My temperament, developed from years of anxiety and fear, would never allow me to strike at her. Apathy, in the most backhanded way, saved my sister from a broken nose or a black eye.
In all aspects of life, apathy can creep into the subconscious and grow. Especially in modern times, apathy has become almost an acceptable phenomenon. I can remember when the people around me were turning 18, and could now vote. Many chose not to. “What’s the point? My vote doesn’t even matter” was usually the basis of their decision to abstain. To me, this argument is invalid. How can your opinion not matter if you don’t even put it out there? If one believes that they are insignificant, then those who would attempt to quiet the masses have already won. They would have us think that we can do nothing, because they know that we could enact significant change if we just realized our own individual power.
