Apathy Will Save The World

It is rare for people to change. It is even rarer for people to change preemptively in order to avoid catastrophic danger. How many relationships have been saved by making a long lasting extreme personal change? Not that many. Moreover, how many cheating and/or abusive husbands have corrected their behavior without the threat of imminent divorce looming over their head? Even fewer. So it comes as no surprise then that people (as a whole) are not moved to change when multiple ambiguous problems threaten to drastically alter or end our lives.


From a Darwinian perspective , this is the way that human life has always been. Our ancestors assembled and mobilized both north and south. Many of them perished because of the harsh winters and scarcity of food while others dried out in burning barren deserts. Ultimately, their fate was decided by external forces. A strange coincidence associated with the mass death of our ancestors was that the remaining moderates who remained alive made great intellectual leaps while the human population was greatly decreased. If the people of the past were able to predict and record the weather, perhaps millions of lives could be saved. It could however be argued that the millions who died would have still stubbornly persisted toward their imminent death. The reason they would have done this is the same reason a man refuses to read a map or ask for directions. Pride and selfishness often dictate our actions whether or not a more logical counter argument exists.

Unfortunately these days, too many do-gooders exist. The problem with do-gooders is that they are generally loud and proud and they want results. Even more problematic is that many of these do-gooders also have money so that they can publicize their cause. The biggest problem with them unfortunately is that they are small percentage of society and as such have no real impact.

You might be thinking "Perhaps they aren't revolutionizing the world but they are making an impression." Certainly they are however, the long lasting effects are like taking a garden hose to a forest fire. All of their attempts are realistically just prolonging the inevitable. I was under the impression that a do-gooders intention was to save the world not to plan an "I told you so" moment in the future. These worldly problems started long long ago, then it turned into a snowball which started gathering momentum and rolled downhill. Consequently that snowball melted due to global warming (ahem, climate change) and turned into a swampy, bug infested skin cancer party.

Another problem with that whole pride thing I mentioned earlier is that some people refuse to call it quits and pull the plug. It is a strange contradiction because if you and I as individuals had a little more forethought and persistence in the beginning we wouldn't have to fight so hard and for so long at the end. But let's face it, the masses don't enjoy exercising, the masses don't enjoy eating vegetables, the masses don't enjoy staying sober and refraining from recreational drugs. All of these things rob our strength and vitality and if we are not able to change ourselves for the better in our own lives what is the likelihood that we are going to change to benefit the lives and futures of the faceless masses?

But, there is a solution and the solution is just as simple as many people's position toward politics, apathy. In the immortal words of Paul McCartney "Let it be." Of course his intention was one of peace and harmony but it still applies to today. On the small scale think of a show like Jersey Shore. You may find the characters to be abhorrent and a pathetic excuse for television programming. Your first instinct might be to complain and tell everyone you hate it. Or, you might become super aggressive and lobby to get it yanked off the air. The problem with that big idea is that you would create controversy and ultimately shine the light of recognition onto a show that might have quickly faded into obscurity. By taking issue with it you end up prolonging its life and even worse you probably end up watching the show weekly in order to criticize it. All it takes is a few million people to gasp in disgust on a regular basis to keep it on the air. However, if you simply ignore it and allow it to reach its point of saturation eventually it will go away and leave no lasting impact on our culture.

I know the world is dying and I know that you, a free thinking bleeding heart are sad to see it being stripped away bit by bit. Whether it takes 2 days or 20 years our civilization has ended. Spare me the application of band-aids on gaping wounds and allow the world to succumb. Whether it manifests in floods, meteor showers, nuclear war or world wide zombie plague just let it happen. I'm not even pushing this from a selfish perspective. I don't own a gun so if I survive the apocalypse I will probably be herded into slave labor by a motorcycle gang. I don't think that we(self included) as a people respect the threat of our dying earth and as such, the only way out is through experiencing it.