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        general >> truth >> Confederacy of Indifference?
        
(Message started by: honkyboy on Jul 7th, 2004, 2:06pm)
Title: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by honkyboy on Jul 7th, 2004, 2:06pm
   There are surely questions that will be asked and answered repeatedly for generations.  So here's one that will be asked again and has been before.
   Is apathy becoming epidemic?  I observe that people are becoming less concerned with matters that affect the course of their lives.  Not only things that can be detrimental to just society and culture, but also to themselves personally.  
   I don't mean to say that I would feel more comfortable if there were more protests, or less heartless criminals.  There will always be people whos actions are indefensible.  
   I live in a small town in the southern U.S. with wonderful people, but it seems to me that the ends and the means don't line up as well as they used to.  Many friends and coworkers of mine don't see the importance of a stable environment for a child to grow up.  I know alot of mothers who are content to get a state child support check as long as they don't have to see the father.  Fathers I know feel that they are not remiss in care of their child simply because of a reduction in the bottom line of their paychecks.  Intelligent good hearted people around me are having any hope of a better life ruined by alcohol or drug use.  HIV has become pandemic through lack of simple prevention.  When there is concern about an issue, people seem to find something to blame and not realize that the undesirable positon they're in is usually a result of a series of bad choices.  Its all ilogical to me, and I don't remember such things always being commonplace.  
   I realize that what I 'observe' through my own experiences is likely not a good representation of the world as a whole, but it's all I have to work with at the moment.  

   Possible answers I've thought of:
- These are the ways of the world and the people in it, I just
  never cared enough before to notice. What a hypocrit I am!
-  Who the heck am I to judge anyone.  I'm far from perfect,
  and was overprivileged from the start.  What a shmuck!
-  My little town is such a poor representation of the world
  itself that my 'observation' mean diddly. What an ego!
-  The world will change, people change, deal with things not
  always being status quo. What a whiner!
-  Yes cultural purity is slowly being degraded by a lack of
  apathy.

   I don't know the answer and have always been a fan of standard truths about life, love, physics, people anything.  I would like to hear what others thoughts are about situations around the globe.

** - I am new to this site and would like to thank all those who have made it possible and contribute.  Imagine that, the internet being used by people all around the world to comunicate, solve problems, educate, and help one another.  Maybe I just answered my queston **
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by towr on Jul 8th, 2004, 1:04am

on 07/07/04 at 14:06:26, honkyboy wrote:
   Possible answers I've thought of:
- These are the ways of the world and the people in it, I just
  never cared enough before to notice. What a hypocrit I am!
I wouldn't necessarily say you're a hypocrit (at least not in the sense that it is bad to be one, it is human to be one, and possibly necessary for survival) But I do think it's pretty much always been this way.
As they say, "The more things change, the more things stay the same"


Quote:
-  Yes cultural purity is slowly being degraded by a lack of
  apathy.
"Cultural purity" can't exist, or can't not exist, either one will do. Culture changes, it's in it's nature. If it wasn't we'd still be living in trees, or walking around naked on the savannas hunting zebras.. Culture evolves, and 'cultural purity' is as unnatural as 'genetic purity'. Diversity is necessary (in both cases) to deal with a changing world, espescially when it changes beyond our control (rather than due to our apathy, like in the case of environmental pullution)

Why be apathic? Because you can't care about everything without killing yourself, or at least without giving up anything resembling a life (which is the same thing many ways)
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Aug 24th, 2004, 11:46am

Quote:
Is apathy becoming epidemic?

Definitely. I used to be able to finish my sentences but now I

By the way, Honkyboy, if you can be bothered please pass it on that last month's meeting of the Apathy Society has just been cancelled.

Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by rmsgrey on Aug 25th, 2004, 5:29am
There was a persistent rumour around Cambridge while I was there of an Apathy Society. The only known rules were that anyone who actually turned up for a meeting (let alone bothered to arrange one) was automatically kicked out, and similarly, anyone showing too much initiative in attempting to find out about the society is likewise expelled, and everyone is a member unless they get kicked out.

On the other hand, no-one admits to knowing how the rules are enforced.
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by towr on Aug 25th, 2004, 7:29am

on 08/25/04 at 05:29:14, rmsgrey wrote:
On the other hand, no-one admits to knowing how the rules are enforced.
Supposedly they don't much care to enforce the rules.. Or knowing the rules for that matter.
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by John_Gaughan on Sep 2nd, 2004, 11:02am
This reminds me of the Voter Apathy Party from Futurama. Fry joins up and is happy, so he's kicked out. Then he says that sucks, so is invited back. I remember watching that and thinking that is the party most people in this country belong to. I am not apathetic, just pessimistic.
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by OnlyAnEgg on Dec 23rd, 2004, 6:05am
;)   I was going to join that outfit, but got distracted as I was looking up the schedule for the 1999 Procrastinator's Convention.

  Happy New Year to all !
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by rmsgrey on Feb 22nd, 2007, 7:40am

on 09/02/04 at 11:02:59, John_Gaughan wrote:
This reminds me of the Voter Apathy Party from Futurama. Fry joins up and is happy, so he's kicked out. Then he says that sucks, so is invited back. I remember watching that and thinking that is the party most people in this country belong to. I am not apathetic, just pessimistic.

Rumour has it that Cambridge University has an apathy society - but attempting to find out about it is sufficiently un-apathetic to bar you from membership...
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by BNC on Feb 22nd, 2007, 8:04am

on 02/22/07 at 07:40:06, rmsgrey wrote:
Rumour has it that Cambridge University has an apathy society - but attempting to find out about it is sufficiently un-apathetic to bar you from membership...


Apathy or amnesia?  :P


on 08/25/04 at 05:29:14, rmsgrey wrote:
There was a persistent rumour around Cambridge while I was there of an Apathy Society. The only known rules were that anyone who actually turned up for a meeting (let alone bothered to arrange one) was automatically kicked out, and similarly, anyone showing too much initiative in attempting to find out about the society is likewise expelled, and everyone is a member unless they get kicked out.

On the other hand, no-one admits to knowing how the rules are enforced.
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by BNC on Feb 22nd, 2007, 8:06am
Or maybe amnesia?  ;D
Title: Re: Confederacy of Indifference?
Post by rmsgrey on Feb 23rd, 2007, 6:35am
*shrugs* So two and a half years later, I couldn't be bothered to read the whole of the thread...

Oh well...


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