It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Can apathy lead to better things?

page: 1
2

log in

join
share:

posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 12:34 PM
link   
Well simple question do you think in a reverse way apathy will lead to better things for people in this world, and the world seems to be going in that direction.

Do you think people need empathy, or in a reverse sort of way does apathy work out better?



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 12:47 PM
link   
In a recent poll respondents were asked if the problem with the world today was due more to ignorance or apathy and more than 70% of those asked answered: "I don't know and I don't care."

Apathy doesn't get the bed made in the morning, it doesn't put food on the table, it doesn't get the car that broke down fixed and it certainly doesn't get complex world problems any where close to being fixed. Apathy is better than despair or even self obsession but it is an emotion that easily sets one in motion on a downward spiral into to emotional hell. All systems tend towards entropy. To understand this is to hold an important key to survival, because if entropy is useless energy then it is something to be avoided. Apathy is somewhat like useless energy as it is an emotion and emotions take energy. If we are to expend energy on emotions it is probably better to be, at the very least, angry and at best at serenity of beingness. Action is far better than apathy and it is a long upward struggle to get from apathy to action. Better, I think, not to go as low as apathy to begin with.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:03 PM
link   
reply to post by andy1033
 

Apathy can be good or bad.
Apathy can be enjoyed only by those who don't work: the very rich; or very poor; the very young, or very old.
Apathy is not akin to empathy (good) or evil.
Apathy is really doing nothing. (Although consciously doing nothing is doing something.)
Apathy can be a political statement: ie.: Why bother? The Democrats and Conservatives are the same clan in any case. Same sweet, different wrapping!
In counter-culture or eastern religion apathy is a spiritual state: a choice of non-interference in material problems.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:10 PM
link   
reply to post by andy1033
 



It is possible for a human to be in a state of apathy towards something that is pointless and stupid and not be messing anything up. For example, when it comes to interior design, I am apathetic. When it comes to my wife giving birth soon, I am sympathetic.

I am thinking that more people should be apathetic towards interior design and more sympathetic towards human suffering. That would probably help things just a little.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:30 PM
link   
Can apathy make the world better?

i dont know. who cares?



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:38 PM
link   
I believe apathy and empathy are just two extremes of the same stick.
And I say that by experience because I am always swinging from one end to the other. I also have to say that empathy in the extreme hurts a lot more then apathy in the extreme. When I say that it hurts I really mean it, I feel pain that comes from god knows where (I think it comes from other people). It can get seriously crazy in certain public situations when you feel fine and suddenly bam, you feel like crap. One could even relate it to spirit possession, serious stuff.

So I think balance is the way to go. To stay in the middle, 50% empathy, 50% apathy, where you have total control of what you want to feel. But that of course needs a certain degree of awareness and identification. You can only control if you know exactly what is affecting you, and thats a pretty hard job but still feasible if one just decides to pay attention.

Every individual is different and has their own percentage of empathy and apathy going on at different times. The only universal solution is balance and equilibrium.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by Geladinhu]



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:44 PM
link   
Well lets test this...

The majority of people today (at least in my country) are apathetic souls who would rather be watching TV and eating snacks then give a damn or be bothered by world events or crisis.

People who "do" pay attention or show "real" concern are usually called "crazy, overreactive, paranoid or weird".

People who just sit, get fat and forget the world around them so they can better handle their lives as slaves to the system...are considered "normal".

Now look at where we are in the world today.

Did apathy help?



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 01:45 PM
link   
Apathy.

Speaking just to the one nation I am familiar with... it is a fact of modern life... a life that has become so comfortable for so many in a position to do the most for the most, that the many now do very little except for themselves.

Events generally follow the same behavior as a clock pendulum. What swings one way will eventually swing the other. That is probably the best way to describe America's fickle electorate who can, one moment, elect the likes of Bill Clinton, the next elect George Bush and then finally, elect Barack Obama.

But the apathy spoken of here has been with us since Jimmy Carter first made mention of it in his infamous 'malaise' speech, near the end of his only term. Despite your particular political tastes, he was spot on with that observation.

But rather than ultimately swinging back the other way, it became stuck in the smugness that came with the fall of Soviet Communism. We Americans, somehow, felt that we had accomplished the job and it was time for the long weekend... a weekend that those who won WW2 never ask for and the one that those who withstood Vietnam never got the chance to miss.

So here we are today, still caught up in a moment long behind us, lounging in a past wealth, sunning in the waning moonlight and completely in denial about all of it.

Our machine is broken. It has quit working and stands idled while it's gears and mechanisms are routinely removed and taken elsewhere. Before long, there will be nothing but a shell... like a gutted grandfather clock that no longer serves any purpose except as a quaint bit of history.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 02:18 PM
link   
Hmmmm...

That's certainly an interesting twist... Apathy as a tool for change.

I don't see it, personally. Apathy allows the status quo to remain, for good or for ill... I suppose it could be viewed as a positive thing when viewed as "leave well enough alone...".

Thought provoking. Good thread.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 02:24 PM
link   

Originally posted by ELECTRICkoolaidZOMBIEtest
Can apathy make the world better?

i dont know. who cares?



lol, you never know, lol.

Maybe this is there plan, to get to a point where we all do not care anymore, and people just live together.



posted on Nov, 15 2009 @ 02:38 PM
link   
reply to post by andy1033
 


I'm not sure that apathy or malaise can have a positive outcome. But to be sure, talking about it is a good thing. If there is a shiny side to this coin, it may just be that we notice the difference.




top topics



 
2

log in

join