Losing
In Life by Default
I
was running so fast and ‘IT’ was chasing me. I know it’s only a dream for how
could I be able to run that fast away from ‘IT’? Nevertheless, I continued
running and thrice I was able to outrun ‘IT’. ‘IT’ is referred to physical death
and this scenario is nothing more than a vividly frightening dream. Still, that
dream may not be as nearly as frightening as living in a society which promotes
culture of death.
Now
in retrospect, that dream is not much different from what most of us are doing
right now which is frighteningly running away from reality; that we are finite
beings, bounded by time unaware of our own expiree dates. The more we run from
reality, conscious only of our individual existence, the more we let ourselves
die. But I digress, who would not get scared with how we personify ‘IT’ as a
hooded skeleton carrying a scythe strangely looking so much like your terror
professor, right? But try to imagine ‘IT’ as your favourite soap opera
actor/actress? Did it go down a few notches in the scary-o-metre?
Point
being is that IT could have just been a victim of societal misrepresentations.
But sadly the reality of IT makes us anxious and self-absorbed. The more we run
from the reality of It, the more we fail to live, the closer we are from
another kind of death—not the physical but the spiritual one.
I’ll
refer to this process of spiritual death as apathy. The concept is actually
biblical. What does the bible say about apathy?
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were
either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit you out of my mouth.
The
dictionary definition of apathy is not quite far from that of the bible’s
description. Dictionary defines apathy as the lack of feeling or emotion;
impassiveness.
Apathy simply is the absence of love. When you
get fixated with your survival alone, you become oblivious of others, you
embrace apathy.
It’s not
actually hate which is the opposite of love but apathy. It’s not also money
which is the root of all evil but apathy.
I can
never agree more with Hellen Keller when she said that “Science may have found
a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -
the apathy of human beings.
In
sociology we have the term “bystander effect”. It is when there’s dissolution
of responsibility felt by a group of people. According to Psychologists most of
the time people won’t be helping somebody in need of assistance or those who
are in danger if they are in a group.
Bystander effect is also known as bystander apathy.
One
popular example was the Kitty Genovese case.
Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in the presence of allegedly 38
witnesses over a period of thirty minutes without having anyone to help the
victim. This happened on 1984.
Apathy
is dangerous. It kills you and the people around you. How? By simply not doing
what you were supposed to do. ( James 4:17 ) In life you lose to apathy by default. We don’t even have to go as far as to search for
bizarre cases abroad to understand apathy. In Philippines apathy is slowly
becoming a way of life. Makes you wonder if it’s really more fun in the
Philippines.
Apathy in Philippines has led to
corrupt government that continually burdens Filipinos by pocketing the
taxpayer’s money, leaders who focus more not on the Filipino’s welfare but
their personal vendettas, legislators sleeping on their work, non-thinking
voting populace, mediocre and lacklustre educational institutions, highly
commercialized and politicized media which provide sensationalized news and
cheap entertainment shows leading to a more misinformed public, non-thinking
non-reflecting mob who readily disregard the rule of law, storms outside and
demand for changes they are not ready for, commerce without conscience with business in the hand of the Oligarchs
who provide less quality service and products at a higher cost, not competitive
workforce and there’s YOU and Me on the list which goes on.
To
sum it up: Apathy leads to a dysfunctional society promoting a culture of
death. With apathy everybody loses.
However, we can change this scenario by not running away and facing our reality.
Our country may be in a terrible state yet it is a work in progress; our
gratitude to those who truly care and are still LIVING. We all are a work in
progress. Let’s help in that work of rebuilding by staying alive and strive
never to lose to apathy by default.
I believe
in the end we will all be measured against this universal standard which is
love. How much love did you put on your work? How dedicated are you in your
field? How committed and passionate are you in your goals? How much effort do
you give on everything you do? How much
do you care?
