24 1	Do we Care?    Posted by bobalou  Promoted 55 days 9 hours ago  730 views     Politics / World  |    7 comments  |  Stumble it! Facebook WTF?!, Write A Response

As an avid follower of all things social and
psychological I constantly endeavour to figure out why and how we behave,communicate and interact the way we do. One manner of human behaviour i am interested in is in our duty to care and respond as such. Growing up we were always told to care for our brother and sister, respect our mother and father. We are told it is an admirable thing to feel for the poor and downtrodden and must look out for the sick.

Ask yourself is there a difference in the deaths of 100 Iraqis and the death of a young boy who lived around the corner from you. Two sets of people with which you had no prior acquaintance with. Of course there is. Even though you never met this kid you feel some sort of connection because he was geographically close to you and it's the talk of the town. Or what about the truth of 9/11. An event that many see as the most despicable act of state terrorism ever committed. There are still questions to be answered yet we don't talk about it anymore. Why shouldn't we care as much about the 100 Iraqis, or the quest for truth. Should we even care at all? Of course we should, but ultimately we do not even think twice about it. My case is that we do not care, in as much as it does not affect us directly. And I'll explain my reasons.

Worldwide 24 hour news coverage and the Internet has allowed us to see and discuss the world. It reminds us that we breathe the same air as the mercilessly slaughtered in Darfur and the religiously persecuted in China. Since the start of the 20th century technology has evolved and developed exponentially. Our understanding of this technology has increased but
one element that hasn't developed at the same rate is our emotional awareness that comes with it. We haven't had time to adjust and form an internal opinion on what exactly we should do about things we see on the television that we have no direct connection with.

Since the dawn of our existence we have been able to shed love and empathy to people we can see, hear and touch physically. We see an argument happening and we try to resolve it. Someone starts a fight with you and you must deal with the situation at hand. It is face to face and immediate. You have an instant and direct connection with that body and in that time and place.

We see death and destruction on the news and we feel helpless. On one hand it depresses us to think that this sort of thing is happening in our world, even in our own country. We get emotional, angry and riled up. But then what happens? The anger that once was felt now dissipates, and even the thought of the devastated face of that poor Iraqi girl you seen earlier on TV changes into the most mundane of thoughts.

"Shit there's no milk. What the fuck am i gonna do for breakfast in the morning"

In no time at all you forget about it. Why? Because we don't know these people. We have never known them, but through seeing and hearing on television and other media are brains tell us we are supposed to react and understand their pain. These feelings we have are not real. Why? Because there is something missing. There is the personal experience of knowing what they went through that is gone and the direct attachment one must feel to be truly affected by it. When your grandparent died you felt something. When your friend was punched one Saturday night by a drunken thug you exacted bloody revenge on their face. When we watch these scenes on TV our brain tells us we must feel for these people. That we must do something. But how do we react? What are we supposed to do?

Some release it by shouting at their TV. Another subculture might go with extreme bush bashing blogging. Others want to truly make a difference but are afraid of wrecking their fragile comfortable lives. Which is understandable. So these people feel
the greatest way of voicing their opinion and curbing the thoughts of governments is to sign up to 911 truth movements or stage rallies and anti-war demonstrations. Well they are sadly mistaken. Better still others feel the best thing is to travel to Lebanon, Darfur, Iraq or any capitalist dick raped region and rebuild houses. The majority of us though are quite content to just be caged up in our own wee world where life is too precious to take notice of international affairs. Of course any intelligent person knows that none of these approaches work.

So is it all in vain? Do big governments and rich profiteers always win? Do the poor and meek ever succeed? Well one thing is for certain. We can either go two ways from here in evolutionary terms. We can start caring more about what is happening in our world and do something about it. Or, we can turn off our TV's, take a step back from our deluded emotions, plead ignorance, confess selfishness and not care about what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Because at the end of the day Israel could nuke the place tomorrow and you would be none the wiser.

But for the coming future I'll say this. We ignored the lies of 9/11. The patriot act was ignored by most senators and America is paying the price for it. We invaded Afghanistan and Iraq on a whim and are still asking how and why. I bet in a year from now we will be sitting in the exact same position, pondering why we never stopped our governments invading Iran to kill and maim and make refugees out of countless more men, women and children. Why we let the coalition of the
weak willed invade another helpless nation all because we didn't care enough. When will it stop? When is enough really enough? When it comes biting you in the ass?

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