So currently I am meant to be writing my End of Year Essay due in this Friday, but I read something that I had to comment on. I am writing my essay on the Holocaust and the theological implications and in one of my books I read this: “The world is indifferent to humans”. But this is wrong, the world is not indifferent to humans, it just exists- in fact it is the people who are indifferent to the world and to their fellow beings. This statement was made by Richard Rubenstein who rejected belief in God and his belief in Judaism because of the events of the Holocaust and the fact that he came to the conclusion that Hitler was the agent of God which he refused to believe. However, I disagree with this view completely because what about our responsibilities? Why does it have to be God who is blamed? What about the responsibility of the people who were involved? Those who committed the crimes? I am not absolving God from responsibility as it raises the long held argument of the problem of evil in which many theodicies have been created. I am not denying the question of where was God in all this? It is an important question! These aren’t simple questions and there are no real answers, but what there is out there is the knowledge that people did commit these crimes. People did stand and watch. People did do nothing.
What I want to emphasise is that we have to wake up and realise that we live in this wonderful world and although we are not always in control, we act, we make choices whether they are right or wrong I am not judging- we make them. No one is perfect but it is time to accept the truth and it is time to accept responsibility for the actions we commit.
Its very easy to say I didn’t do anything- well I have news that is still making a choice- the choice to do nothing, the choice to ignore the problem. If you see a man being beaten up by a gang, some people may walk away pretending they haven’t seen anything because they fear the gang, they fear for their lives. I completely understand this feeling- the feeling of fear, but it is at the end of the day still a choice someone makes- the choice to walk away. Some may say ‘Well what can you do?’ How can you speak like that unless you were in the situation?’ Well truth be told, I have been in that situation. Except I wasn’t the one walking away ignoring the problem- I was the victim. (Not in a gang fight let’s not be dramatic now!) But I was pestered by some youths on the train. People are too scared to shout at youths nowadays because they’re afraid of the law and they’re afraid of the consequences. On this busy train, people simply looked away uncomfortable not sure how to react, but you could tell most of them were apathetic. I looked to people for help- anyone-but no one wanted to help. I kept wondering why won’t people help? Like I said it’s very easy to look away and not take any notice. But sometimes people need help, they need someone to pull them out from a hole. It is not ok to stand around and watch others suffer. Not everyone is like this, there are few who help, but the majority stand around waiting for others. Stop waiting and start acting. Who are you waiting for? God? For the person to beg? For someone to tell you to do something?
It is also called indifference. Not many people have the strength or the courage to face up to the evils and injustice in the world. And I’ll admit it is a big thing, but it’s time for a change. Why should we live our lives in fear? Pascal said that we want to be seen as brave and courageous, we want people to think we possess these characteristics. But in reality we do not have them, we would rather people think we have them. It is very true- Pascal was a very wise man!
It is wrong to be apathetic and for people to be indifferent to the world they live in. Stop trying to blame someone else, whether it is God or the person next to you who didn’t help the person in trouble. We are responsible for our actions. We can intervene and help others even if other people choose not to and even if God didn’t intervene. So stop relying on others and be the change that you want to be.
Rant over for now! Back to writing my essay! Must not waste anymore time procrastinating!
mysteryworldexplorer 