On Apathy

One would think that with the technological advances, all channels/access to information available, the modern man would be well-informed, able to think critically, preoccupied and involved with the events around him. It’s not the case for the general population. Instead the modern man is ineffectual, lost and apathetic. He didn't advance beyond the state he was in the pre-industrial era – just a little more pre-meditated dead-weight knowledge thanks to public education and a bit more free time to muck about.

Apathy nowadays is no more a temporal state of mind, as it has become a widespread cultural bias that promotes disengagement between the individual and his surroundings, product of self-defeating messages and the cult to ignorance, packed and fed by the media (which profits from the docile public), and certain political groups. And on itself it’s a symptom of the sickness plaguing the western: fatalist submission.

Apathy arises whenever there is lack of something constructive. And there is nothing constructive to occupy oneself with. Except, maybe for being a rockstar or internet celebrity. Not even a saint or sinner, so to speak.

Modern man is robbed of everything, but the simple, yet luxurious, comforts of his material possessions and tribalistic ties. There’s no goal in this materialistic world than to fulfill the same old “earthly Eden” ideal the fools, the peasants, had dreamed of.

We are limited only to this state of achieving personal wealth, bound to earth by the knowledge that we’re soon return to it. So why struggle, why sweat, why not be apathetic to the timeless reality around yourself when only YOU matter?

Indifference stems, in part, from two subtle but demoralizing messages: “you can’t do anything about it, so better ignore it“, “It’s too complicated and boring, better focus your attention on personal entertainment“.

Apathy is the result of a destroyed social paradigm, complete atomization of the society that’s devolved to detached individuals all pursuing their minute and ultimately, primitive goals of an ape. Get food, get shelter, reproduce and get entertained. That’s all. No need to look at the sun, the stars, oneself and wonder why it is so, how it could be improved, how it can be changed.

A person without ideals, without abstract, overhuman goals and beginnings, is an empty, underdeveloped shell that could be filled with anything from the outside. Usually it’s something rough and primitive, something that can mold that person into an easily controllable unit of an “average person”, regurgitated and spat out by the bigger cogwheels. One who doesn’t fight, one that even if asks questions, knows that the answer won’t change anything.

It is easy to rule an apathetic society. It would compliantly agree to any idea, any demand.

For one the dynamics between the public and the media, isolate the individual from the events taking place in his/her environment. We’re given news containing detailed information of how getting in touch with entertainment: where you can buy any new product, where to go for private services, everything related to mass-consumption; because news obey to publicity, disguised as objective information. Yet, most social issues are handled from an outsider perspective.

Third party control and distraction is another factor in this tendency. It’s very common to see how causes unrelated to us are advertised, charitable causes aiming to raise funds, support through the acquisition of products; on specific days, while the facts around it remain on the shadow, and the whole cause goes ignored the rest of the year. It’s very satisfactory for the individual since they believe they’re somehow doing something, without taking action. Some might take them more seriously than others, but in the end these causes are only fads.

And it’s just easier getting involved with affairs that don’t affect us directly, from a safe distance, because getting hands stained, assuming responsibility goes against the very simplistic principle of lifestyle we’ve been sold. It’s never your problem until it causes discord with your fragile sense of security. It happened in every major act of terrorism or conflict – when we are told that we are one, yet maintain the feeling that it can't touch us directly. And then it becomes someone else’s responsibility, the institutions you ignored and didn’t want to get involved with.

Indifference is the ally of our enemy.

It doesn’t matter how individualistic you are, no one is excluded from taking responsibility, even if no one asked for it to begin with. It’s a permissive attitude with all the interests of others who are restless with their personal agendas.

Tolerance promotes apathy. Look at what the world tells you: “accept, don’t fight it, get to terms with it, stop paying attention, shut your eyes close and live your life, it’s not your business, leave everyone alone”. Apathy, in that sense, is about turning your back on the world, digging a hole in the ground and burying yourself there, rotting alive just to make your “life” a bit easier.

True enough. Decomposition is easy. Resurrection is not. People prefer to take an easier route.

Apathy is needed to make people submit, lock them in their fates. It’s an “ideology” of the sated, the decadent, the hedonistic. The Bible of the Stuffed Belly. It lies at the roots of the most corruptive ideologies, like liberalism. Look who talks about freedom – those that do not have it, those that don’t even try to realize what freedom is. Their freedom is but the freedom of a mentally insane patient, locked into the confines of his mind – in our case, the rules of the modern world.

Why does it arise, the indifference in our time? Is it because we have no faith? Because we have no way to follow? Everything is claimed to be of equal value, and we get lost among all the dozens of what is deemed rightful, prospects. Dream big – in reality, it turns out to dream about getting a bigger car and shinier stones. Be what you want – a shaking, twitching, un-gendered fool, a freak. Don’t impose yourself on the world, be a part of it. Allow, accept, take it.

Like a bitch.

And who takes it like a bitch? Those taught from childhood to comply and never object. Never force your opinion, never, if it goes against those sappy bogus values sold to you. Seamlessly inject oneself into the same atomized chaos of swarming individuals, and learn to maneuver in this soup of human desperation and hopes.

If we’re to progress, it’s time to take responsibility, time to realize that every process of change shall be a consequence of, yes, a collective effort, but simply going with the flow is no longer acceptable, it must be conscious, stemming from reasoning and understanding. It’s time to unveil all the propaganda, detect the poison given to us that is slowly corrupting and destroying all our chances of prevailing, in the face of less dissimulated attacks.

Apathy. The instrument to sap the passion from the passionaries, the fight from the fighters, the mind from the wise. Indoctrinate people to lower their hands and let them hang limply, instead rising them up. For the majority, at least. So that’s what keeps us in the shackles of the murky, ineffective politics, the lack of breakthroughs in humanity development, in the lack of any actual, inspiring progress.

Apathy. The desire to live a quite little life and never get punished for it.

Fear and lust for comfort combined.

Quite animalistic, in the end.

Animals are apathetic towards their fate, because for animals, the only goal to be had is to live long enough to procreate as much as possible. Beyond that instinctual drive, there's nothing to be gained or exploited for a feral beast, and is it not telling of how many modern people desire to be animals? Running around free, unrestricted and irresponsible, caring only for only this present moment of instinctive drive.

Apathy is de-evolution, and you are that – de-evolving, if you just don't care about shit.

Maybe you should, and earn the title of a human being.

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Collaboration between Kombat-Unit and Ars Moral

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