Turning a Blind Eye
"No one becomes poor by giving." - Anne Frank
An eager volunteer walks up to you on the street. They hold up a donation box, the word “UNICEF” inscribed on the front. All that sits miserably at the bottom of the box are brown copper coins and purple ten dollar bills. The volunteer says,
"Please help UNICEF by donating! With just fifty cents, you can help send a child to school!"
You refuse the offer by holding up your hand to the volunteer and walk away. Someone else will donate more than fifty cents. My donation will be insignificant in comparison.
A commercial plays in the shopping center. The celebrities tell you about Earth Day. All you have to do to help preserve energy is to turn off your electricity for one hour. They encourage you to join. On the days leading up to the event, the commercial persists. Yet, on the day of the event, you sit home with the electricity running. One person won’t make a difference.
But when millions of people believe they won’t make a difference -- what then?
In times when action is needed, there is none. This is our society’s fatal flaw.
Social apathy is defined as the lack of interest, enthusiasm and concern in social situations. It refers to the indifference towards others, the absence of humane involvement when needed, the “inaction when action is needed” and the suppression of emotions towards the situation of others around them. It is when people refuse to make a difference, or believe they won’t make a difference, therefore they should make no difference at all. Indifference is the driving force of our society’s political, social, economic and environmental issues.
School has laid stress on the importance of generosity, empathy and kindness since the beginning of time. Our textbooks and teachers periodically instruct us to help and give to those in need. We are taught to be altruistic, to be thankful of what we have, and that our good deeds will be compensated. We acknowledge the changes and minor differences we can make to ameliorate a situation. We can donate money to organizations, use less plastic and electricity, recycle when possible, and donate our belongings in hopes that someone in need will find comfort and joy in them. Yet, we refuse to.
“The world will not be destroyed by those who are evil, but those who watch them without doing anything.” - Albert Einstein
As mentioned before, social apathy is when people refuse to help and make a difference, either it is because of the belief that their actions aren’t needed as the problem does not concern them or wouldn’t make a significant difference. What is described above is called “diffusion of responsibility”, the cause of a more commonly known socio-psychological phenomenon known as the “bystander effect”.
This phenomenon stems from a young age in school. A kid refuses to stand up for the classmate being bullied, in fear of the bully targeting him next or his classmates calling him a “snitch”. So they stand in the shadows, wanting to help, knowing they should help, but their fears are holding them back. This is the beginning of the bystander effect, and can follow the individual to adulthood, so in a similar situation in the workplace where a colleague is being harrassed, for example, they stay quiet, or they hesitate to help in the streets. Our sympathy causes the uneasy feeling in our chest when we see another person in distress, but our pride and fear takes hold of us and stops us from acting on it. We convince ourselves that the people around us will take action instead. But when everyone thinks the same, the less likely anyone will take action. This adds on to the phenomenon, and consequently, the more apathetic our society becomes. The bystander effect proves to be more harmful than it is thought to be.
To illustrate, take the unfortunate case of Khaseen Morris. The teen was attacked by six or seven people near a strip mall on the fateful day, and died of a single stab wound overnight in the hospital in a dispute over a girl. Instead of defending or stopping the attack, the fifty to seventy teens at the scene, many of whom his peers, decided to record the brutal incident instead. They watched and recorded and zoomed in on his body while he bled from his wounds on the ground. The police describe those teenagers as “egregious”. However, Khaseen is not the only victim of the bystander effect; Kitty Genovese, James Bulger, Shanda Sharer and many more too lost their lives when calls for action were met with inaction.
In the modern era of technology, amid the peak of social media, people are more likely to take out their phones to record and reupload the situation instead of dialing emergency services. These gruesome incident becomes entertainment to millions of people online, shared across social media platforms, sparking outrage from users across the world - but what about the incident at that very moment? Do we refuse to act out of shock or because we do not know what to do at the time? Why does our fear and hesitation overpower us and when will we break out of this restraint?
“Apathy is the acceptance of the unacceptable.” - John Strott
Social apathy has been an ever prevalent problem throughout history. Helen Keller’s apt words tell us “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”. Lives are lost in genocides, epidemics, wars on the grounds of the apathy of humans.
During the Holocaust, many people were passive to the situation of the Jewish. Regular citizens did not offer shelter or stand up for the Jewish during targeted attacks or stop Nazi officers when the Jews were prosecuted. Many citizens denounced their neighbours, friends and acquaintances to Nazi officers because they fell under the category of Hitler’s victims. The younger generation taunted and bullied their peers, the Germans could acquire Jewish businesses and property, all of which adding to the isolation and hostility towards the Jewish people. Towns living near concentration camps were aware of the situation and torture behind the wires, yet they said nothing and did nothing. The mass genocide that is the Holocaust is the most notorious case of the bystander effect.
In this day and age, the apathy of citizens and human beings can severely alter the outcome of political situations and the future of our planet. Political apathy includes the public lack of interest and information in politics, voter apathy, disengagement in civil activities and the inability to make right decisions. This is a result of some of the loopholes in the system, such as the public’s distrust towards politicians, the belief that the politicians are spewing empty lies and the perception that most candidates are the same. The bystander effect is the main reason why elections are seeing drastic and historic all time lows in upcoming elections are seeing all time lows. In the US, minority groups and the youth voters have the lowest voter turnouts. When people distance themselves from political discussions, elections, and voting, it adds to the lowering voting turnout and chances of corruption and immorality of politicians. A poll in 2015 shows that less than 20% of those aged 18-24 plan on voting. The youth believe that their one vote would make no difference. The youth are the people most affected by the turnout of political elections. But the low voter turnout shows the future generation’s political apathy. This leads to people finding themselves unrepresented, their political views polarized and increases rigidity in the government.
Such indifference applies to environmental issues. Environmental apathy is the result of people’s denial and fear. It mainly refers to people blocking out the reality of the high stakes of climate change and global warming. Even though scientists have told us that we have less than a decade before there will be a drastic change in the Earth’s climate, we are reluctant to take action. We are seeing irregular weather patterns around the world, more violent natural disasters, rising sea levels, animals on the verge of extinction, and more. There is no doubt that people are afraid of climate change, but instead of acting on the fear to improve the situation, we create psychological barriers to block out the truth. This is a defense mechanism, to deny what is happening right in front of our faces because it would spark uncomfortable and overwhelming emotions. Climate change is far in the future, we can worry about it later. But the situation is now. What could we have done in the past that would change the situation now?
The media shows us horrific images of people suffering around the globe. They tell us that children have been starving and separated from their family. More people have been murdered. All of this to show us the truth, to raise awareness for the situation, for us to take action.
But we simply scroll past it on our social media. We think, nothing we can do will make a difference. We should just wait for the rich and the powerful to save the poor souls instead.
We are born with two hands. One is used to help ourselves, the other to help others. Indeed, at the moment, we may think that we have no place in a situation, and that we make no difference to the suffering of others but we can. But by donating those fifty cents, you still add to the child’s funding for school; by giving the person the directions they need, you become the person they will appreciate; by contributing to Earth Day, you’re protecting your planet. By showing compassion, you are inspiring others to do an act of kindness too. After all, the greatest gift one can give to others is themselves. The domino effect you can create will revive the empathy and compassion inside of all of us, and only together, can we defeat our society’s apathy.