I can certainly sympathize with apathetic people, for it's very easy to be caught in cycles that don't allow us to see the importance of certain things in life, or that cause us to feel that most of what we do is pretty pointless, anyway.  After all, when even a close election is decided by a couple of million votes, it can be difficult to see the significance in voting.  And when we read about the wars and the economic crises and the graft and corruption among politicians, it can make us feel pretty powerless, pretty insignificant.

The problem, though, is that apathetic people tend to see their "uselessness" or "hopelessness" in a very broad sense--they see how they affect (or don't affect) the entire world, and they lose their focus on the effects that they can have within their own sphere of influence.  They don't see how simple actions can have very positive effects on themselves, their friends, their co-workers, or even strangers on the street.

If we define "apathy" for ourselves, I think that we would come up with many different definitions.

To the hyperactive workaholic, even some active people may be considered apathetic, while the moderately active person may see the bar as being a bit lower.  But the main gist of the word seems to be a state of not caring, of not finding enthusiasm or hope or excitement about anything in our minds or in our hearts or in our spirits.  The apathetic person simply seems not to care about anything, and seems to be fine letting life go by without making any of his or her own contributions to it. 

But if I'm apathetic, then I'm not creating conditions in which I learn.  After all, our most effective and most important learning comes when we've taken actions and we learn from the results of those actions, be the results positive or negative, what we hoped for or what we hoped to avoid.  A lack of action keeps us from learning very important lessons. 

Apathy also keeps us from forming alliances and feeling connections to our fellow human beings.  Apathy tends to be a lonely state, one that keeps us from doing what we can to help others, and that keeps us from asking others for help. 

Most unfortunately, our apathy keeps us from making a positive mark or three on the world in our own unique ways.  If I don't care about things, I'm not going to volunteer my time to help other people.  If I don't care, I'm not going to challenge myself to make things better.  If I'm apathetic, it's very easy to simply sit on the couch and passively experience the entertainment that's been created by people who have taken action and who have pursued their dreams.

And while it's tempting to look at apathy as simply a personal problem, the fact is that it's a societal problem that's incredibly dangerous.  Apathy is one of those traits that can damage people and systems like almost nothing else can, simply through the inaction of apathetic people in times when action is called for.  And unfortunately, we seem to be teaching our young people to be less and less concerned with societal issues and more and more concerned about personal issues and personal gratification.

Apathy is a quality that makes people very frustrated--have you ever tried to drum up interest among a group of people who just don't care?  And when apathetic people get together, they tend to feed off each other, supporting each other's ideas that what they do doesn't matter.  For people who are trying to be active and get important things done, apathy can be an obstacle greater than laws, an often-insurmountable mountain over which they're unable to move.

The apathetic people whom I've known have convinced themselves that what they do doesn't matter.  They've talked themselves into believing that other people don't care about them or what they do.  They're fully convinced that even if they do act, their actions will have no effect on others or on the world.  Perhaps the best way to approach apathy is by trying to convince the apathetic person that their actions do matter, maybe by taking every opportunity we can to thank them for something that they've done, telling them that it has had a positive effect on us.

Perhaps the best way for us to deal with apathy is through caring enough to convince the apathetic people that they're wrong when they think that what they do just doesn't matter.

Apathy is a sort of living oblivion.

Horace Greeley

The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap
from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.

William Lloyd Garrison

Apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice.

Rollo May

Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.

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