Charles Baxter nails the essence of humanities main problem in this piece. Like all civilizations have that disaster which destroys them, apathy definitely ranks up there- high- with the black plague and small pox. Humanities casual carelessness is what Whitman was trying to get at in novels like Walden. The first page of that book talks about how you're probably reading it between buss stops and credit calls.
Anyway, all I have to say is defamiliarization and apathy are one in the same. People need to give a shit, and it's really REALLY too bad that, that state of mind is never going to reemerge in society.
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I think what you are saying is completely true. Case in point, on my way back from an internship there was a man who wanted to take his own life by jumping off a building in the mission today, and I overheard someone say, "that's real rude to do that during rush hour."
ReplyDeleteHow much empathy is that? Since when did people lose humanity to think only of their own problems?