Mahatma Gandhi Community Forum
The Rant
The Rant
http://www.campusvoiceonline.com/media/storage/paper1364/news/2010/...
The Campus Voice Online
By Michael Sampson
"You can't save the whole world Michael," is what one of my best friends told me one frustrating night.
My reply to her was pretty simple, "Why not?"
Why not "save the world" or do all I can do in my power to make sure it is a much better place than when I came in it? Why shouldn't anyone reading this, not have that same mindset? A mindset in which they feel the need to do something important and substantial, that is much bigger than meeting their own selfish interests.
With such huge problems in the world, it appears to me more and more everyday that the biggest problem facing society can be explained in one single dark word. Apathy.
Apathy is the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. Apathetic individuals are people who show no concern when it comes to the many problems facing our future.
Apathy is a disease.
I am fortunate to be a volunteer coordinator at one of FSCJ's campuses. In that role I have the ability to help assist others with volunteering.I have seen amazing things, such as charities that perform a wonderful service to people and also fellow students with a genuine urge to help change society through volunteering.However, I have also seen a lot of apathy.
In this short experience I have seen a lot of individuals with a very self-serving nature without the will or urge to do anything to benefit others.
Like I said in a previous column, many people simply don't care about anything that doesn't pertain to benefiting them.
Why? Quite simply, it seems they suffer from apathy. They feel no obligation to help others or "change the world" because to them it makes no difference.
How foolish must an individual be to believe or follow such a simplistic and erroneous mind frame?What if Martin Luther King Jr. had had such a mindset? What if Mahatma Gandhi had not felt the obligation to resist England's imperial oppression in India? What if every great individual, who has ever made a significant contribution to changing the global, socio-economic climate at their specific moments in history, had chosen the path of self-preservation and self-interest? How would the world look now?
The suffering that exists in the world today stems from apathy it seems. People simply don't care so they do nothing about addressing the problems that continues to plague society now.
Whether it be through volunteering or making people aware of issues that need changing, I ask that you do all you can to "save the world" one person at a time. Don't continue to allow societal injustices to plague the globe without doing something about it.
It is your prerogative whether you become an apathetic sheep or join a team of change.
The ball is in your court.
http://www.campusvoiceonline.com/media/storage/paper1364/news/2010/...
The Campus Voice Online
By Michael Sampson
"You can't save the whole world Michael," is what one of my best friends told me one frustrating night.
My reply to her was pretty simple, "Why not?"
Why not "save the world" or do all I can do in my power to make sure it is a much better place than when I came in it? Why shouldn't anyone reading this, not have that same mindset? A mindset in which they feel the need to do something important and substantial, that is much bigger than meeting their own selfish interests.
With such huge problems in the world, it appears to me more and more everyday that the biggest problem facing society can be explained in one single dark word. Apathy.
Apathy is the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. Apathetic individuals are people who show no concern when it comes to the many problems facing our future.
Apathy is a disease.
I am fortunate to be a volunteer coordinator at one of FSCJ's campuses. In that role I have the ability to help assist others with volunteering.I have seen amazing things, such as charities that perform a wonderful service to people and also fellow students with a genuine urge to help change society through volunteering.However, I have also seen a lot of apathy.
In this short experience I have seen a lot of individuals with a very self-serving nature without the will or urge to do anything to benefit others.
Like I said in a previous column, many people simply don't care about anything that doesn't pertain to benefiting them.
Why? Quite simply, it seems they suffer from apathy. They feel no obligation to help others or "change the world" because to them it makes no difference.
How foolish must an individual be to believe or follow such a simplistic and erroneous mind frame?What if Martin Luther King Jr. had had such a mindset? What if Mahatma Gandhi had not felt the obligation to resist England's imperial oppression in India? What if every great individual, who has ever made a significant contribution to changing the global, socio-economic climate at their specific moments in history, had chosen the path of self-preservation and self-interest? How would the world look now?
The suffering that exists in the world today stems from apathy it seems. People simply don't care so they do nothing about addressing the problems that continues to plague society now.
Whether it be through volunteering or making people aware of issues that need changing, I ask that you do all you can to "save the world" one person at a time. Don't continue to allow societal injustices to plague the globe without doing something about it.
It is your prerogative whether you become an apathetic sheep or join a team of change.
The ball is in your court.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Maybury on -
I hated history at school, because it told us about kings and queens and dreadful wars.
However, since being involved a little,, 60 years now, with various individuals and groups 'trying to make the world better, I have noticed that the number of people 'worrying about the world', in their various ways appears to be only an insignificant minority.
From time to time mass movements, for example the Aldermarston marches against nuclear weapons in the 1960s, and recently protests against the Iraq war draw inlarger numbers, for a limited time. The numbers, as a percentage of the population, however, are still very small- for example 1 million out of 60 million in the United Kingdom.
To involve more people simply does not often happen.
At present climate change is the issue. In my home town about ten people meet regularly out of a population of 190,000!
One a year we organise a Green Fair, which a few hundred people attend. There are other organisations, perhaps with a few volunteers, but this seems to be the way things are, and have always been. Any more ideas.
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