The word "indifference" has its roots in the Church Old Slavonic language. It was found in the psalms of the 13th century and meant equality and constancy of consciousness. In the Russian literary language of the 18th century, it signified calmness and constancy, fortitude and equanimity. It is not known for certain why, but already at the beginning of the 19th century the semantics of the word changed and acquired a negative connotation, “indifference” became synonymous with coldness, inattention and indifference.
Dead Souls
In the modern definition, indifference is a passive, indifferent, devoid of any interest in relation to the surrounding reality. There are many sayings and proverbs that condemn this feeling, or rather, its absence. A. P. Chekhov once called indifference a paralysis of the soul. The writer Bruno Jasenski wrote the following in his novel “The Conspiracy of the Indifferent”: “Do not be afraid of your friends - in the worst case, they can betray you, do not be afraid of their enemies - in the worst case, they can kill you, be afraid of the indifferent - only with their tacit consent occur on Earth betrayal and murder”.
There is even an opinion that indifference is inherited as a terrible disease in which a person is not able to live a full life and enjoy emotions. Compassion is not characteristic of indifferent people, they are callous, cowardly and even mean, everything human is alien to them. They are called underdeveloped, considering that they are at the lowest stage of evolution.
Indifference as a defense mechanism
The conditions of modern life are complex and contradictory. Perhaps it is not appropriate to justify indifference, but it is perhaps worthwhile to figure out why a bright human soul eventually becomes callous and indifferent.
Human life in the 21st century is full of stress and worries. Economic crises and unemployment, destructive ecology and a mass of diseases, a crazy pace and risk - it is almost impossible to meet a person who is not burdened with his own burden of problems. As the old Russian proverb says, your shirt is closer to your body. It is quite difficult to sincerely empathize with another, often completely stranger, floundering up to his neck in his own troubles.
All the media, as one, surround a person from all sides with information about infant mortality, robberies, catastrophes, wars, accidents and natural disasters that occur every moment in all corners of the world. It is unlikely that after so much negativity, empathizing with everyone and everyone, someone will be able to maintain mental health. It must be admitted that in such conditions a person is simply forced to use a protective mechanism - to be more indifferent to what is happening.
Humanity is not hopeless. Free psychological assistance, social services, public and volunteer organizations - behind most of them there are caring people who are ready to help. But the first thing they learn, constantly facing disasters, is humility and calmness, the very “evenness of spirit” that our ancestors meant by indifference, otherwise all these responsive people would simply go crazy. Society tends to think in categorical terms: indifference is bad, responsiveness is good. But, most likely, the truth, as always, is somewhere in between.
