Accidents happen, mistakes are made, people get hurt, that’s part of life. What isn’t always part of life is a genuine sense of remorse when these things happen. Far too many times the words “I’m sorry” are spoken, but are they truly meant? Does anyone really care about the harm and pain they cause? Because it seems like offenders are far more concerned about the reaction to their actions.
I have discovered a sad and inconvenient truth, and no, I’m not talking about climate change. I am talking about apathy. Apathy is killing the emotional connection between people and the only thing left in the wake is fake. Fake news, fake social media profiles, fake friends, fake compliments, and especially, fake apologies. The world is fake, shallow, and worst of all, hollow.
Apathy is like a slow acting poison, it catches hold of you subtly and little by little, kills your soul. Because apathy is slow acting, it can be hard to find at first. People you meet and associate with may at first seem genuine and caring, but it is after long association that the realization comes and you see how they didn’t really care as much as you first thought. The worst cases of apathy that I have seen are cases where someone has done something wrong and tries to apologize. Only when things turn sour does the poison show true and the effect of it become apparent.
The older I get, the more I realize that people are often not sorry for their actions, or the pain that they have caused. They are sorry for the reaction you had to what they have done. I have found that most of the time, people mean what they say, or they mean to do the things they do. They’re just sorry you have become offended by it. They aren’t sorry for the pain they have caused, just the backlash that has come from it. The easiest examples I find are politicians and celebrities who do or say bad something wrong. They are sorry they got caught, not that they did something wrong. Another good example are children. Though I find their crimes to be much less heinous, they are still far less sorry for taking a cookie from the cookie jar as they are from getting caught doing it.
Is there a cure for the poison of apathy? I don’t know. If there is, I think it would be slightly different for everyone. For some, it might be an inward realization of what they are doing and a change of heart. Others might need someone to sit down with them and really explain why what they did was wrong and why they should feel sorry for it. True character is what you do when no one is watching.
The Man in His Mind 