Gaither Stewart: The seduction of indifference, again and again and again


	Gaither Stewart: The seduction of indifference, again and again and again

Rasmus

12-22-2007 8:05 AM

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tags:

indifference, ethics, solidarity, humanity, niemöller

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12-22-2007 8:10 AM

Johanna_G

Not the torturer will scare me
Nor the body's final fall
Nor the barrels of death's rifles
Nor the shadows on the wall
Nor the night when to the ground
The last dim star of pain is held
But the blind indifference
Of a merciless unfeeling world

Roger Waters - Each Small Candle

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/704bfd84-af13-4264-8fe8-fe02877d9f73/F4ACFB20-D234-4FE2-9629-20D42BE1388F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml" href="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml" style="font-size: 11px;">onlinejournal.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">Yesterday, I ran into a poem I had read as a student
in Germany, written by Luthern Pastor Martin Niemöller, who broke with the
Nazis in 1933 and became a symbol of the German resistance. His words prompted
me to take a closer look at the complex subject of indifference he speaks
of.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">“indifference to indifference,” which in my mind
is located still another ring deeper in the Dantesque Inferno.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">many millions of people display an inexplicable
indifference to the reality of the suffering, indifference to war’s uselessness
and to its criminal-terroristic nature.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">indifference that the strong feel toward the weak.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">such indifference is frivolity and knavery and cowardice.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">“If we put aside our humanity,” Milosz writes, “we
realize that the world is neither good nor bad -- it just is.”</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">The spark of human life in us differentiates us from nature</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2747.shtml">From that point of view
humanity is also in battle with nature, against its apparent meaninglessness.
We humans instead search for meaning.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F4ACFB20-D234-4FE2-9629-20D42BE1388F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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