The Emptiness of Indifference

There's so much more to hope for when we care

Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903 (public domain - Wikipedia / Google Art Project)

“At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.” — Søren Kierkegaard, 1850

As you know, I send additional essays for subscribers only that are a continuation of the topic I wrote about earlier in the week.

Recently, I was struggling to get to today’s essay, because I felt like I wrote pretty much all I could about empathy.

I thought about it in the shower (that’s where the best ideas come to you, isn’t it?), in bed, sitting at my desk and staring at the ceiling. I can’t remember where I was when it finally came to me, but I thought, “Why not look at the flip side of empathy?”

And what is the flip side of empathy, exactly?

Simple. It’s indifference.

It’s the complete absence of any interest in the other or the unwillingness to show that you care. In other words, apathy. That leads us back to the Greek root “pathos,” or suffering. The “a-” means without. 

So, I began my journey…