Be Careful of the Sickness of the Soul, Indifference!

 

The World Youth Alliance talk about how, indifference is a  social disease. It really is a problem today in all aspects of our society and world, which can be found at:  https://wya.net/indifference-a-social-disease/ They say on their website, that, according to their writer Brenda Morales, she said, "The hardest thing about my accident was not walking with the crutches or having to wear the cervical collar the whole day or even the pain in my back. The most painful thing about my accident was the indifference people had towards me. What do I mean with indifference? That people, not all of them, but plenty and mainly in my university would stare at me or look at me with pitiful looks on their faces about my current condition. This happened even more when I tried to walk or move from one place to another.

The way people looked at me was something that made me reflect on how dehumanized our society is right now. Our society is not very comprehensive nor helpful, and this is becoming a social disease that is spreading very fast. We live in a society that when your interests or needs are not affected, you don’t feel the need to aid someone whose interests and needs have been compromised in some way. This is also a great way of denying that the other person has dignity. By neglecting to accept the humanity of others and their worth, we now limit ourselves to recognize their social status, their influence, or their wealth. We become more and more materialistic instead of becoming more human.

Thomas Hobbes stated “a man is a wolf to man” in the Leviathan as he describes that the natural state of men is the desire and will to cause harm. What Hobbes argues is something that I could see reflected in so many political crisis: in those displaced and in refugees, all of them victims to governments and societies that couldn’t possibly be more indifferent to their needs and issues. Now, for many, the issues of those people can be fixed by liking or sharing the issues on social media, instead of actually doing something that can make an impact on the situation of all these people in a real way. This is when we, as a society, lose the sense of what it really means to respect the dignity and the value of being human.

Indifference is the complete opposite of social commitment. A person becomes indifferent to another because the feeling of responsibility and respect towards humanity doesn’t mean anything to him anymore. Indifference is something that hurts those who are already suffering pain, as it is a lack of recognition to their humanity, and therefore, dignity. People get reduced into objects, as the subject of the relationship decides deliberately to objectify them. The grave impact that this has on a societal level is something that continues to develop and we will continue to see.

There is hope on how to fix this as the World Youth Alliance has several programs that support the battle against this indifference. With programs that build character, like the Human Dignity Curriculum, WYA is trying to build a society of people that live respecting human dignity, and therefore, show solidarity to one another. WYA also goes ahead and explains several topics that could clearly show the importance of respecting said dignity. If you’re interested, you can apply to their Certified Training Program and learn more about it through the several readings that exemplify everything. We need to cure this disease of indifference and start considering the other as an equal to us, as we were all born equal in dignity, worth, love, and life." Found at: https://wya.net/indifference-a-social-disease/

I see so much indifference today. I recall that Bishop Fulton Sheen even compared indifference to hate and allowing evil, because it is allowing hate when you are indifferent toward something and do not do something about it. It really is true. Today I have witnessed so much indifference, at work, in day to day life out and about, in society, in government, it saddens me so. You say hello or have a blessed weekend, people ignore you or do not even respond. The cancel culture, dismissive attitude, the blatant ignoring is so common place today. It is sad to see, so many can become so dehumanized to others and be this way. Even we have had a priest who was indifferent, he would not look or talk to us at church, and we would see him at the gym and he would also completely ignore us, wanted nothing to do with us, it was hard to see from a Catholic priest after being Catholic for 60+ years. The other day we went to church for confession. A man directed us to the priest, I spoke to him briefly as I heard him talk at church the week before. He responded, but then two days later, I saw him again, he completely ignored me and walked right by looking the other way, a supposed Christian who works at the church, yet could care less to be bothered to look at me or be socially polite. It is sad to see people today, they never say please or thank you, they take and take, but never give. So many do not have manners and are so ill behaved and educated. I write, call, text friends and family often, many times some will never write or respond back. I try to stay in touch with workmates and retired friends, or old friends from overseas, some cannot be bothered to write back. I bring flowers and candies at Christmas to my neighbor yet she is not willing to open the door although I see her at the window. We see people doing so many evil things, punching people randomly on the streets, doing so much evil. Stealing, lying, cheating, being so selfish, and greedy. Thinking it is fine to kill innocent, helpless, voiceless babies, no one wants to take a stand on abortion and stop killing babies. We have become a society of indifference which I agree it is evil, it is careless, it is unacceptable. Most is due to people who do not have Jesus in their hearts. They lack God or a religious foundation to behave like God wants us to, to be like Jesus, He was the example God gave us to live by. No one wants God today, they think they can do it on their own, they cannot spend one hour a week in the church or listening to Bible verses and a good message. I agree the greatest sickness of our times today is the sickness of our souls, indifference, it is sad to see, but a real reality of life today. We as a society need God! We need healthy souls while here on Earth. We need Jesus in our hearts, following His example and love with all we do, living by His teachings, the Ten Commandments, and being people of goodwill, showing love every opportunity we get toward all people. We all need to be careful of this social sickness, it is very contagious, this sickness of the soul, indifference. We need to live with purpose, with love, with joy, and conviction for loving and being like Jesus always! It is a miracle and you are blessed when you have Jesus in your heart throughout life! Living well means caring enough to do what is right!