The Opposite of Love

I've really been struggling lately with apathy and the best way to deal with it. I've heard friends talking about their encounters with people who 'just don't seem to care' in their classes and in their daily lives, but I suppose I hadn't really considered the enormity and general impact of this until now. In my Politics and Political Life class, I believe I am one of the only people, if not the only person, who cares. Here is a direct quote from last class: "Our group talked about it and we don't think that there are any causes that people would fight or die for these days." We have just read 1968, about the civil rights, feminist, and anti-war movements, etc that took place around the world. We have also just read Plato's Apology, and A Man of All Seasons (a more modern version of the apology about the life of Sir Thomas More who wrote Utopia). The people in these books all stood up for what they believed in and were persecuted and sometimes died for their beliefs. Many were martyrs and people to be admired and followed. I couldn't believe that these people (Political Science majors nonetheless!) were saying that there were no causes currently that people would protest, fight, be persecuted, or die for! I could think of 20 right now that get me upset enough to want to do fight as hard as I can for as long as I can to fix them. In fact I think it might be a shorter list of issues that I don't care about that much. And I know tons of other people like me personally. Not to mention the people all over the world right now that are fighting and dying for their causes. What world do my classmates live in and what other things are they finding so important as to not recognize a cause when they see one and to not care about it when they do? I was shocked into not being able to say anything during class and also not feeling comfortable doing so. I had so many things to say that I didn't know where to start and I figured if I let myself go off like I wanted to, I would harden more hearts than I would open. I wrote my professor an email instead explaining my lack of participation. He wrote me back and said that he supported me and that if I was willing to open my mouth and fight for activism and 'my cause' that he would make sure it didn't get out of hand. He said that unfortunately, he had not been surprised the the passive indifference shown by my classmates-that he was no longer surprised by it. He said that he hoped that I could restore his faith in student activism. I fully plan on doing so. Perhaps it is because I am such a black and white person, that I do not understand the ability of a person to be apathetic, but I cannot bring myself to 'see the other side' on this one. How can you know that others in the world are suffering from things like hunger, poverty, poor education, racism, discrimination, violence of war, ethnic and religious conflict, environmental degradation, torture, rape, etc and not care enough to be moved to do something about it. Not only that, but not care enough to be able to completely ignore the presence of these things in our world altogether? I simply do not understand... Perhaps it is easier not to care. Because caring entails the responsibility to do something. Caring entails that you have to feel sympathy and emotion for someone other than yourself and your family and friends-for people you don't even know. It takes time, energy, and lots of effort to care. For sure, caring is really difficult-there's no question. But the price of apathy is much worse than the price of caring. I also think that people are distracted by other things. I think that people are distracted by the media, by technology, and by money. The media bombards the public with things they want to hear about: much of it in the form of something scandalous that can be break room gossip. They are censored by the government and tightly controlled so that we can't see the things that the government does not want us to see. This way, they can avoid another Vietnam-where people were getting blown up on living room TVs-if people saw the soldiers' bodies being carried off the planes or saw the soldiers getting blown up by children carrying bombs, I believe they would care and be moved to do something about it. Instead, they are put into a government-regulated comfort zone of ignorance. There is a quote by Adolf Hitler that I really like: "What good fortune for governments that people don't think." It is completely true. Technology distracts us in obvious ways-by making things so fun and available all the time, people have less boredom and incentive to check out the news. Instead they can watch their favorite movie or TV show on the go or check the latest sports updates. For many, with technology, news becomes second rate. Money is the driving force behind everything. Money is the reason we go to school, get a job, work ourselves to death, etc. It ruins relationships and is a division among people. I hate what money does to people. I hate the way it changes people and rules lives. I hate the way that it has the ability to motivate people and be an incentive for people. How much different would our lives be if we didn't have to worry about money? It's incredible to think about. I think that money provides an incentive for apathy. Because people are motivated to get it, and some are willing to do anything to get it, people get high paying jobs which often don't benefit anyone but themselves and do more harm than good in the world. It doesn't pay well to care and to do something to help other people. It doesn't pay well to fight. But it pays later. It pays off when the world is a better place and changed for the good because you fought, you sacrificed, and you were persecuted. It will pay off when poverty and violence end and when all people are seen and treated as equals to each other. That is when the pay-off will be. And it will be better than any pay off money can give. The apathy scares me. What does it take to get people motivated enough to act? What can I do to create action? To create a movement? To create enough love for other human beings to ignite a fire for change? The answers will come in due time I suppose. One more thing... I've been thinking a lot lately about signs from God. I don't necessarily believe that if I'm looking for answers God will place the exact answer word for word, direction for direction, in front of me. I don't believe that He intends to answer all of our problems or prayers, but to challenge us to find the answer and our own way ourselves. I believe that He has a purpose for every person, but that He gives us free will to make our own decisions and to choose our own paths. He places challenges in front of us and obstacles in our journey. He creates our choices, challenges, and obstacles, and the paths they place in front of us. I believe in free will because I don't necessary think that God intended for people to be things like prostitutes or soldiers, but that he placed the choice in front of them and they chose of their own free will. God is not absent from the hearts of these people, but did not necessarily choose their path for them. I think that God does give us signs however. I do believe He graces us with people and things in our lives that were placed there in certain moments to be His voice to us. Last semester, I talked to 3 different people, who don't talk to each other at all, about the same dilemma I was having. They all advised me to do the same thing, in the same wording. I truly felt like God was speaking to me through these people and when I wasn't getting it the first time, He sent 2 other people to tell me and to help me out. Today, I was having a rough morning-I didn't get a lot of sleep and I had to be up early for a meeting I didn't necessarily want to go to and I have tons of work to do-and I walked outside on my way to my meeting and the sun had just risen, the campus was quiet and bathed in golden light. It was warmer than it had been in weeks and I even heard birds chirping. Snow was melting and I could smell just a hint of spring in the light breeze blowing past my nose. It put a smile on my face and allowed me to relax and smile. I know this was God reminding me of the beauty in life and that everything would get done and work itself out. He knew I needed a pick-me-up and sent it my way. I love trying to find the ways that God is active in my daily life by sending things like that my way. I also believe God gives gifts through things like nature and people. He allows us to appreciate the beauty of His creation and to live in it. He allows us to meet people and appreciate the value of each individual and how He created them special. I pray that I am always able to pick out God working in my life. :) That's it for tonight... I have an unbelievable amount of work piling up. More soon to come I expect. I just couldn't work before getting this out :)