I want you to care more

Let’s talk about apathy on this campus and in our generation. Or, if you don’t care enough to talk, listen to what I have to say.

One of the signatures of youth culture is a sort of uncaring brushing-off of life itself. After all, the cool kids don’t care about anything.

They live by their own rules.

But I want all of us to examine that.

When did caring about something become souncool?

Why are people who question things and people with passions looked upon with scorn by so many?

I understand live and let live.

None of us want someone else’s interests to infringe on how we feel we deserve to live our lives.

But why are the pursuits of others so threatening to us?

Take the kid who asks questions in class.

In larger lectures, students sit in silence.

Every once in a while, some brave soul tentatively raises his or her hand and asks what’s usually a legitimate question, one that many of us were also thinking.

Yet, if you look around the room while this lone soldier does battle with academia, you’ll see exasperated and angry facial expressions.

People snicker and make comments to their neighbors, usually along the lines of “really?” or “ugh.”

Or, take protesters.

I’ve walked by multiple protests on campus and heard other passersby make observations like, “Why do they even care?” or “Nothing will change” or “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Popular sentiment seems to be that protesters, whether they’re against Wall Street or abortion, should just go away.

Students associated with these groups and students asking questions  and people who express their passions are looked upon with disdain by their peers because they don’t conform to social and cultural norms.

Their passion means they’re not the cool kids.

The norm now, things about which it’s okay to care, are steeped in traditional world views and clichéd youth culture, and I wonder why our generation still hasn’t moved beyond them.

Look at all of the people who wouldn’t ever attend a protest but scoff at all those on campus who don’t party.

Party culture, at least at IU, is the accepted norm, and those who don’t subscribe to it are suspected of being off in some way.

They care too much about things other than partying.

And it goes both ways. Often those at IU who don’t frequent parties have the same attitudes: those who party often are inferior in some way, and they care too much about partying.

Why do we care so violently about what other people care about?

Perhaps because many would be happy with a campus that conforms to their personal norms.

This is why people seem so apathetic.

This is why we hate people who care. It’s because they push us. They force us to step outside of our small, controlled worlds for just a second, and to examine things from another perspective.

It’s hard and scary, and hardly anyone likes to do it. But it’s necessary.

Once you leave college, it gets increasingly hard to confine the world to the comfortable microcosm that you’ve created for yourself.

It’s important to take these steps now and ease your transition into reality. That’s one of the biggest benefits of college: it provides a fairly safe environment in which your world can be completely turned upside down.

I want all of you to stop being so damn apathetic. Or at least to stop putting down people trying to expand their horizons.

There’s nothing wrong with a little caring about something, whatever it may be.

Frankly, you can’t get far in life without it.

­— kelfritz@indiana.edu