This is not about love or hate. This is not about race, or even public policies. This is about something passive. It’s what most people choose, ironically, which is why I won’t, and you shouldn’t, blame anyone except for yourself. This is what apathy looks like.
You. Yes, you watching TV. You listening to and posting about how great the new Adele album is. You drinking yet another Coke or smoking another cigarette. You wasting another fucking night drinking with friends and talking about everything BUT what you know you should be talking about. You possess the most evil characteristic a human could. I know, it doesn’t side to affect you. You get to keep working, and watching TV, and listening to Adele, and drinking a Coke, and smoking a cigarette, and getting fucked up with your friends. You may actually even care. You may post your opinions and sorrow on social media. You may even join a protest. But, aside from what you may be doing, what do you stop doing?
Do you stop buying products from companies that have supported, if not funded, the formation of this fucked up society? Where your cousins feel the need to blow themselves up to get a point across?
Do you stop voting for politicians that you disagree with, just because you think they have the best chance of winning an election, who enact laws to perpetuate the deterioration of our society? Where your brothers in uniform can shoot to death the defenseless, or anyone for that matter.
Do you stop for a minute to think, while you’re on your 6th round of beers with your friends, why you’re continuing to talk about baseball stats, or who you’re currently fucking, or making another unoriginal movie reference, instead of what’s currently happening to our society? Where those friends of yours think it’s ok to interrupt a peaceful protest to violently push their agenda?
We have a gift, and it’s called language. And instead of using it to listen to each othe, we’re using it to project useless bullshit.
Save the humor for a comedy show. Save the sports stats for the next game you attend. Save the fucking for your next date.
Next to you have the opportunity to open your mouth, try uttering something like, “why?”. Why did this happen?
It’s not only about what you’re doing, but just as much about what you’re not doing.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
– Pastor Martin Niemöller
