Why Ignoring Someone is Bad?
Being ignored is sometimes a disastrous feeling.
The other day I was reading George Bernard Shaw’s play and I came across a quotation of his,
“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate him, but be indifferent to that; that’s the essence of humanity.”(Act II, The Devil’s Disciple)
I couldn’t help mulling over it. We, humans, value ourselves but sometimes we deliberately or accidentally hurt someones' respect. It’s common these days to ignore those who don’t matter to us. But we don’t pay a little heed to what this indifference will make them.
Bernard Shaw is right when he says this. To despise someone is to show our feelings. But to ignore someone tells what? It makes us fishy. It hides our motives. So it’s worse.
Indifference can have the effects that hate can’t have. People can cope with hate but being ignored is awful. Hate is apparent and natural but ignoring is not natural. And the person being neglected can’t help wondering what were the motives of the other person. It can provoke guilt, anger, self-loathing, humiliation.
It’s better to ignore someone who is disturbing your work or is disrupting the peace of your mind or is ignoring you rather than hurting them or yourself. But avoiding someone for nothing is terrible. People talk about child neglect and its harms but it's rare to care for individuals.
Let’s make it plain. Why we unintentionally neglect people?
When we don’t think about someone or in other words don’t bother them, it’s more likely to be indifferent to them. You may not be doing that on purpose but it still shows that they don’t matter to us.
I think our mind is poor infiltration. By deliberately ignoring someone you give a new direction to your mind and the result is unconscious neglect of others.
It’s not good for us in the long run as people will start to ignore us and we would be devoid of the experience which we get by interacting with others. It’s a way to close the door for us. Neglect comes back to us like hate.
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
-Elie Wiesel
Ignoring is rude and apart from rudeness, it can hurt other person’s feelings. No one is unworthy enough to deserve indifference. Let’s do something for this offense!
