The Perils of Indifference

1. The dangers of not caring.

2. The story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson has a shocking ending where normal people commit a horrific violence. This happens in everyday life in a small way. Nice looking people can say incredibly rude remarks. A normal looking family can be full of abuse and you would never guess. Robert Pickton came off as a normal but he killed tons of women. However, the people in the story were normal - it was just a tradition. Things aren't always as they appear because the townspeople weren't bad people. Young men fighting for Hitler in WW2 weren't necessarily bad people, they were told what they were doing was right so who can judge them? They could have been great people but people think of them as evil for doing what they were told. Good people can do bad things without even noticing they are. People always think the side they are fighting for is right and they fail to see the effects of what they do.

3. The speech "The Perils of Indifference" and the story "The Lottery" have a lot in common. Elie who gave the speech is warning not to be indifferent to violence and evil where the towns people are indifferent - they stone a friend to death. The lottery has good people doing something horrible as Elie warns us not to do. Elie doesn't want there to be more unnecessary violence and killing where the village people think giving up the lottery would be outrageous without realizing how horrific it is. They stone these people to death without caring or stopping to think about it. They were completely indifferent; they didn't even question it. On the other hand, Elie is warning that indifference, lack of caring, is an atrocity.

Issues.

Once a person becomes aware of an issue in society they may become morally responsible for dealing with it. It depends on the issue. People have their own stresses and hurt to deal with but that doesn't mean that they should be self centered and focus only on them. If you see someone hurting, you should help them if you can.

People shouldn't feel pressured to help people though. If they want too, good for them. If they don't help other people deal with the problems they are going through, people shouldn't judge their decisions. It's not immoral to ignore situations if you are going through much worse and can't help anyways. I'm talking about personal problems here, just because you see someone in pain doesn't mean you should drop everything and run to help. That is a personal decision.

Somethings should be dealt with though. The slaughter houses kill animals inhumanely and hundreds of people die every year in them. In that kind of situation, the public should step up and take responsibility. These people are just like us and being killed so big companies can make us some burgers. Things like this are the responsibility of the community and it is the right thing to do something about it.

How people respond to issues depends on their own beliefs and values. Some people believe they should help everyone no matter what it will do to them and some people believe in survival of the fittest. It's all about who you are as a person.

I might pursue an issue a teacher brought up if I feel it's important. The most important issues to me personally is issues involving unnecessary human death or cruelty to animals. Those are issues I think should be dealt with and I would stick up for them.