Apathy and the Living Dead
It’s nothing to die; it’s frightful not to live. - Victor Hugo
The word “Apathy” has its origin in Greek and literally means "without feelings." Isn’t that a description of the dead? That was what Victor Hugo was referring to when he wrote, "It’s nothing to die; it’s frightful not to live." In other words, we should not be afraid of dying, but not living. The apathetic are alive, but without feelings, so they are not living. They are the living dead.
Here’s what the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980) had to say about the subject, "... In the 19th century the problem was that God is dead; in the 20th century the problem is that man is dead ..." He calls apathy a problem for a good reason. It is a double-edged sword that wounds both the apathetic and the society in which they live. For example, although nuclear weapons cannot destroy democracy, voter apathy can! Such is the horrific negative power of apathy. As the world’s leading democratic country, The U.S., prepares to go to the polls, voter turnout is expected to be about 36%. Wouldn’t you call that a wakeup call?
What is the cause of apathy? It is often frustration and a sense of powerlessness that causes people to withdraw from life. However, the ultimate cause is their attitude, the way they react to the changing world. Let’s take a look at a specific example.
Jan has recently learned that her company has been bought by another company. Within a month, she and her coworkers will learn who among them will be hired by the new company and who will lose their jobs. Overnight their sense of security has been shattered. They are experiencing apprehension and frustration. They feel that they have lost control over their lives. They complain and disengage from activity. "If the company doesn’t care about me, why should I care about it? What’s the point of working when I’m probably going to lose my job anyway?"
This is an example of worker apathy. The staff has been reduced to a bunch of zombies. No one is doing their job. They are just putting in their time until that fateful day when they learn whether they have a job in the new company. There is one exception, however. And that is Jan. She is different. She has a different attitude and is living proof that apathy is not caused by events, but by our reaction to events.
The "silent majority" of the American people is now accepted as the status quo, the way things always have been and will be. Voter turnout is now the litmus test for political participation. Non-voters are becoming rampant in our democracy, with voter turnout hovering around a low 60% for general elections. At this rate, a candidate would have to win over 80% of that 60% vote in order to have true majority support. Thus, inactivity in voting threatens the very legitimacy of our government. In the recent November 7, 2013 midterm election, a few counties reported a mere 4% of eligible voters actually participated, in some cases to vote for a policy referendum that would aff...
This book is important to business students because it shows that even the most seasoned executive runs into unexpected challenges and can find themselves in uncharted territory. Jim Barton’s experiences and lessons can be lessons for anyone. Any employee, whether they are support staff or a top executive, should always maintain an open mind and be ready to learn from a situation or the people around them at any time.
I do believe that society is still indifferent today. Indifferent means lack of interest or concern; no difference. Many Americans are in this kind of mindset about issues and that's why America will never change. While reading the speech “Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, I observed that being “Indifferent was a negative thing. In his speech he states “Not doing anything makes you just as guilty as the “bully” hurting the “victim”. This means that by you not doing anything to make a situation better, you are just as much of a problem. This also means that if people ever want to see America change then they need to start caring and not being part of the problem. Everyone wants to live this “American Dream” but no one is doing anything to make this into a reality. Elie Wiesel also states “Indifference, then, it's not only a sin it is a punishment”. This means that it’s not only bad to not care but it’s really not fair to everyone else. Some people actually want to see a change in America and by some people not caring is only keeping America at the same level instead of helping us move up. Mr. Wiesel said this speech in 1999, this just shows that America hasn’t changed at all. This just shows that something needs to be done so that Americans can get the “Dream” that they have been working hard for. It’s time for a change, if not it's only going to hurt us even
From the short story “The Dead”, Gabriel the character shows us how his point of view of a certain thing is seen. His wife has passed away and his attitude in the story is well seen as neutral.
The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act applied a market approach to school reform as a way of improving the school system. This new law promised an era of high standards, testing, and accountability in
We have all been groomed to believe that we are born with instincts or innate ideas. Locke puts this topic into question and does not immediately reject it but does so with evidence. He believes that innate ideas- something that has been there from the beginning- are non existent. His argument that supports this, in Book I of An Essay Concerning Human Understan...
For as long as any American can remember, education has been a top priority of the majority of the population. The more schooling a child receives, the brighter their future becomes. Everyone wants their child to be successful in and out of the classroom, and the government has been working to make sure of this in schools nationwide. Over the years, a series of programs have been implemented to better the education of elementary and secondary students, including the No Child Left Behind Act, establishing guidelines and requirements that public schools are expected to follow and accomplish in order to provide a quality education to all of their students. But are these plans, policies, and promises working? Are the goals and objections being reached by each school as expected? Although some may argue that the No Child Left Behind Act has some positive aspects, overall, it is not working because some teachers have studied the outline of standardized tests, reworking their curriculums to teach students what they need to know in order to reach the required standards and students’ learning abilities, socioeconomic status’, and native languages are generalized into a single curriculum.
At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ...
Death is universal, but various cultures have their own unique traditions. The Jewish culture has explicit rules which are steeped in tradition, and have significant meaning. The rituals are based on events from the Hebrew Bible.
Making the NCLB Act effective is quite a chore for the federal and state legislation. The positive influences for the act are quite controversial. Accountability standards are set and measured on a yearly basis by each individual state. The educator’s qualifications and standards are also state and federally mandated. Reading, math and writing are the key academic subjects that are measured. The goal is to close the gap among race, socioeconomic groups, and disabled students. The schools tend to focus on these areas, while they direct the education toward the test taking success rather than the child’s needs. Parents are given a whole academic achievement picture when receiving the test scores.
Steen, R. Grant. DNA and Destiny: Nurture and Nature in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1996.
Heidegger, in his famous work Being and Time, argues that death is not an event but an existential possibility (1962, pp.294). In this sense, death is a way to be and Dasein’s (which Heidegger refers to as human existence) Being is a Being-towards-Death. Death is part of our life and the prospect of death grants unity and wholeness to Dasein (Reynolds, 2014, pp.40). According to Heidegger, there are two inauthentic apprehension of death: fear and indifference. “Inauthentic” here means “not fully recognizing what it means to exist”. Heidegger suggests that death is non-relational. Nobody else can die for me. Neither can I die for others. One must face his/her own death alone. Therefore, to be indifferent towards death and to fear death are both
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First, a cause of apathy is people wanting to fit in around others, so they will do anything they expect will cause them to look favorable to others. People worry about what others think about them and do not want to be laughed at. Therefore, some people have a selfish desire to fit in which dominates over their sense of morality and civic