Disasters
So, New Orleans is in deep shit. Deep water at least. The situation there and in Mississippi is nothing short of catastrophic. Tewwible. F-. There’s a huge loss of life, land, property. It’s a shame, and it will be a long time before those people and cities recover.
I’m not too saddened by this, sympathetic yes, but it doesn’t directly impact me so it’s not tugging at the heart strings so much. It’s not because I’m cold, just because I’m honest. If I subjected myself to the constant news reports (VULTURES) I’d probably get all sad about it, but why would I do that? I don’t want to spend my days looking at other people’s tragedy. Not only is that bad for me, it’s kind of tasteless and inconsiderate to them. Of course I’m not ignoring events, but I’m not going to put on a false face and pretend. If I was wealthy, had time off work, and was nearby I’d probably go ahead and help in some fashion. Since I’m not any of those things, I’m not going to.
This country has a bad habit of acting like we’re “humanitarian” or altruistic when we’re not. There’s nothing wrong with that, but collectively we seem to think there is. We DO have a lot of great people who genuinely care, and will genuinely help to better the situations of the people affected by this and other disasters. What we have a lot MORE of though, are people prattling about preaching goodwill, human unity, help the <insert problem> but not actually doing a damn thing. Somehow, a great number of people get the idea that they are bad humans, so they’ll pick up a cause to start preaching about. Most of them drop it in a week and go back to their apathy, a lot of them never actually got out of the apathy to begin with, they just wanted to put on a face to make them feel better about who they are.
Sound cynical? Maybe a bit. You’ve seen it though, at your office, your school, whatever. You know the people I’m talking about. You probably know more than one of them. These people are so uncomfortable with who they really are that they put on any pretense that’s convenience so that they don’t loathe themselves quite as much. Single Serving Crusaders perhaps? It’s hard to tolerate people telling you what should be done–what NEEDS to be done–when you know they’re not doing anything themselves.
So whoever’s out there that might fit this description, drop the charade. It’s disgusting. You’re not a bad person because you don’t have heartache over someone else’s loss. Giving $5 to the red cross will not fix you, or make you a better human. If you truly want to help, go for it, that’s really cool of you! If you don’t, quit letting the news vultures guilt you into trying to be someone you’re not. It’s much more of a disservice to yourself to be two faced and in-genuine. Humanitarian isn’t a coat you wear to make yourself look better, whatever your intentions are you have to actually DO it. But it’s ok, it’s not your job, it’s a choice. It’s not a choice any one else can push on you or make for you.
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