“I don’t care.”
Arguably three of the most dangerous words in the English language. But also very common. You know when you just get fed up? With your friends, your schoolwork, your government, the press coverage of Kim Kardashian’s latest nude selfie? With the whole world?
When we get overwhelmed, the easiest thing to do is to just say, “screw it,” (or perhaps a more explicit variation), and just go somewhere your problems can’t find you, like your bed. It’s just like when you were little. If you stay entirely under the covers, the monsters can’t get you.
But then where does that leave you? Sure it might be warm and cozy in there, in your cocoon of apathy, but life isn’t just about being comfortable. It’s about staring the things that you don’t like right in the face and saying, “I am not going to take this.” Because contrary to how society has conditioned you, you don’t have to take it.
Early on in our lives, we are taught to be complacent. We take a moment to sigh and shake our heads at the bad things, but then remind ourselves that that’s just the way things are. People in far off places we can’t see starve to death, your phone that you simply can’t live without is affordable because it was made with virtual slave labor, and the planet we live on is becoming more uninhabitable for future generations every day. But these things are out of our sight, out of our minds and therefore out of our consciences. What are you supposed to do? Donate what little money you have to some hungry person halfway across the globe? Get rid of your iPhone? Not drive your car to get places? None of those things are going to help in the grand scheme of things. Not caring is just so easy, effortless even, so let’s just ignore it and move on with our lives.
But apathy can spread. Like a disease it can infect all parts of you. Once we start thinking about our context in terms of “the grand scheme of things,” how could anything possibly have any meaning? You feel like you can do or not do whatever you want because nothing really matters. Actions probably don’t have consequences, right? And even if they do, as long as you can’t feel them immediately, don’t worry about it. You’re fine. You don’t need to change, the world doesn’t need to change, so you can just keep watching your third hour of "Chopped" completely guilt-free.
Sometimes the thought does creep in, though. What if you weren’t a total piece of shit? What if you were capable of doing more, of being more? But then that thought passes too, and you slip back into indifference because it doesn’t ask anything of you.
Caring, on the other hand, does, but that doesn’t mean you have to transform and suddenly take it upon yourself to correct all the injustices of the world. Bono has already decided that’s his job. It just wants you to hold on to that moment for a while longer. Think about what is wrong and what would have to be done to fix it. Not in “the grand scheme of things” but in the little slice of here and now that is right in front of you. Then maybe one day this thinking will turn into doing and your actions will have a power that is bigger than you.
Don’t get bogged down in lofty, over-arching notions of “goodness,” whatever that means. That’s how you get overwhelmed. Just look at that piece of trash on the ground, pick it up and tell yourself that it matters. We can’t all be Bono (nor do we probably all want to be. Not many people could pull of those glasses), so do what you can, for yourself and for the world and feel good in the knowledge that you are trying. You can’t do any more or any less than that.
