We are different from the animals of this planet because we have the capacity to rebel against our apathetic natures. Animals appear not to do this. Birds compete with one another for building impressive nests, but they don't improve from year to year beyond the basic idea. We don't see Swallows building condo's in Hawaii. But humans rage against acceptance and the mundane. At least, that's what we're supposed to do.
Wiki has this to say:
Apathy (also called impassivity or perfunctoriness) is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, or physical life. He or she may exhibit an insensibility or sluggishness, also. The opposite of apathy is flow.[1] In positive psychology, apathy is described as a response to an easy challenge for which the subject has matched skills.
It goes on to list the various ailments which can cause apathy:
Often, apathy has been felt after witnessing horrific acts, such as the killing or maiming of people during a war. It is also known to be associated with many conditions, some of which are: depression; Alzheimer's disease; Chagas' disease;Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; dementia; Korsakoff's Syndrome; excessive vitamin D; Hypothyroidism; general fatigue; Huntington's disease; Pick's disease; progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP); schizophrenia; Schizoid Personality Disorder;Bipolar Disorder, and others. Some medications and the heavy use of drugs such as heroin may bring apathy as a side effect.
There are a ton of disorders there that I have never even heard of. Who the fuck was Korsakoff? I thought that was a helicopter... Progressive Supranuclear palsy does not in fact come from being exposed to Kyroptonite, or nuclear fall-out.
I have long looked for fundamentals that make us different. Passive, aggressive, neutral, male, female. All of these help define us as Human's, but it is the approach to life that defines us as a species. Of all the animals in the animal kingdom, we were the only ones who said: FUCK YOU PLANET.
Dinosaurs died, mammals grew big, then died. We, will most certainly die, but most likely at our own hands. No other animal can claim that honour. We decide how we operate on this world. We have struggled long, hard, and fought like ... well humans ... to achieve our place as rulers of the globe. Or did we?
Some of us did. Most of us didn't. At least, those living below the poverty level, in 3rd world countries, and in under-developed places where tourists from those who did go to spend two weeks taking in the local culture. The sad thing is that nations rise and fall, and societies rise and fall, and it appears the apathetic nature of man surfaces and submerges too. It's as if people just give up.
Take Greece for example. Once they fought bitterly, developing fabulous new approaches to life. Battle, struggle against human nature, violence, peace, democracy, autocracy, all bubbled and boiled for several hundred years. The same thing with the Egyptians. Then almost over-night the entire nation just gives up. Where was the tenacity of Alexander when the Romans invaded Greece? The 300 were dust by the time the Italian army invaded Greece during World War 2.
The USA is dominant not because of any other reason except the will to dominate. The British have a stoic form of anti-apathy in the form of making sure that the 'Right thing is done at all costs'. Where is the German Hitler of today? Signing negotiations, getting by. Trying to make the world a better place by putting sanctions in place.
Empires do not crumble because of anything else apart from apathy. When we no longer care. When we stop being human, stop controlling our fate, and just 'go with the flow'. Zebra's have mastered that technique. So have all the other animals on the planet. It's fairly easy. Give up, surrender yourself to the universe and stop trying to better yourself. Congratulations. You're officially just an animal. You eat, shit, breath, and die. Maybe you reproduce. Who gives a fuck. Not me.
But if you made the effort to be better, to improve, to develop, to change the universe, in other words you lived as a human being - struggling and raging against the whole system, then I care. History doesn't document the lives of the apathetic. Here is a 45 minute special on Pierre Du Luc. He grew up in a village of no importance. He could have become a nuclear physicist. Instead he took the easy option, and grew cows instead. He married some bint, they fucked passionately to begin with, and then perfunctorily until he gave up in his 60's. He enjoyed wine, warm butter, and toast. They had kids. Then they died. They inspired no one, they developed nothing, they changed the world because they took up space on it.
Had Pierre tried to figure out how to make his cows grow faster, bigger, stronger, different colours, or tried to paint his fields on canvas, hell, even if he'd tried to make his rickety gate work just a bit better - he would have been a man of consequence. Instead he chose to just live.
Squid do that all the time. And probably have more fun doing it.
But, I hear you complain, surely not everyone has to change the world. What about the little grey people in between the great ones? Alexanders great, great, grandmother is an unknown, and yet her contribution to the planet was significant. Absolutely, except for one thing: Did she know she was going to help the planet and humanity in that way? No. She was a lazy, fat-arsed cow who lived, and died, and her genetics made it into someone who took what they could, and tried to make it better.
Ah but surely not everything and not everyone needs to be made better. Why can one not be content with what one has? Certainly! I thoroughly encourage you to adopt this line of reasoning. But please, take all your clothes off, and fuck off into the local forest and live off the land. After all, if you adopt that attitude in the 21st centuary, surely our ancestors have the same right to adopt it in 10 000 BC? If we, as humans sit back content with the world, it will begin to revert back to the way it was. And we shall have to go back to the way we were... Ook ook?
Evolution works by allowing things that are better suited to the environment exist. The environment changes all the time. Every second of every minute is a change. If you do not evolve better ways of dealing with the environment, then you are done in the evolutionary chain. It means there is a predator out there that will eat you up, and shit you out later. But surely what predator is out there now? Criminals? No. They're just being proactive about their lives. Struggling to make a solution. You who are burgled, are not struggling against them. (Bullshit - when last did you upgrade your electric fence, sensors, and door locks? Oh when they were first installed a couple of years ago. The burglar has evolved, you have not...).
The entire human race is running to get somewhere - anywhere but where it is. That's called life. We want to find a safe spot where we can eat, shit, and die at our own choosing. Animals haven't got a proactive choice in the matter. Humans do. Which is where apathy comes in. When we give up, when we just accept life, and struggle to just eat, shit, and die - and not through our own choosing because well... it's so hard, and you don't have any money, and you are not as talented, and blah blah blah... then you are in effect turning into an animal, awaiting death nervously.
I love humans, and the more ambitious, the more willing to learn, to develop, to adapt the human, the more I love them. For a long time I've wondered why I don't like so many humans. It's not because they're stupid, or slow. It's not because they're rich or poor, or fat, or thing. It's because they don't want to change. Don't want to accept a new approach to life, don't want to accept what cannot be changed, but change what can. Apathetic people.
Now we're all apathetic about certain things, you can't fight against everything all the time. But you can fight against most of it. I'm fat. I'm getting fatter. What am I doing to change it? Nothing. Why? Because I'm apathetic towards it. I am however trying to make the world a better place on a daily basis by trying to teach other humans how to live in it. Will I change my fat apathy? I will continue to try every time I see fat-foods. But it is hard. But I shall try.
Now unless you have one of those many, many disorders listed above, you have no real excuse for being apathetic. Just rebel and rage against one thing, one aspect of your life. At least. And if you're not willing to at least try, save us all some time, and fuck off and die. Leave it to the humans to save humanity.
