The Seven Deadly Sins are traditionally regarded as some of the fundamental human flaws, the parts of humanity that make us the depraved, sniveling little toads we are. Everyone knows their names, they are about as basic as human evil goes. They're as old as time and despite their age they continue to trip us up to this very day. Lust lives in the specter of AIDS, Wrath is displayed on the faces of our leaders like war paint, and Greed is personified in the short sighted avarice of our political and business leaders. Even the least thought of of the sins, Sloth and Gluttony continue to show their ugly faces in cases such as the obese man in Ohio who was so obese and immobile that when he died he was fused to his chair.
But those Seven aren't the only primal evils. They've got brothers and sisters in crime. These other sins are known as Apathy, Deception, Short Sightedness, Prejudice, Willful Ignorance, Exploitation, and Fear. They don't get as much attention as the more traditional seven, but they are just as, if not more, damaging to our development as a species.
First up is Apathy, the distant cousin of Sloth. Apathy is indifference, its just not caring about anything that doesn't affect you. Its being unwilling to rock the boat, to try and make change or even have an opinion. Apathy is evil by omission. Look at every genocide, every dictatorship, every singularly vile act in human history and you'll find people who knew that things were messed up but said nothing. Apathy is letting monstrous shit happen because you don't have the guts to make a stand.
On April 18, 2010 a Guatemalan immigrant called Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed several times while trying to save a woman from an attack. He bled to death in the street as people walked by, doing nothing to help him. The only person who stopped only did so to take a picture of him dying with a camera phone. And this isn't the only case of such behavior. On Christmas Day, 2010, a charity worker by the name of Simone Back posted a suicide note on Facebook. The message was short and simple, "Took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye every one." The response from her 1,082 "friends" was to mock her. While she died of an intentional overdose, these people, some of whom lived within walking distance, called her a liar and argued with each other. No one even bothered to inform her mother of the note until seventeen hours later. Simone's mother posted a message on Facebook announcing her daughters death and asking her friends to please leave her alone. These people who claimed to be her friends were still insulting and arguing about Simone even after she was dead.
I'm sorry, does this make you feel uncomfortable? Does hearing about the indifference and cowardice of people who do nothing while people suffer around them offend you? Good, because it should. This should make you angry and sick inside. But does it? Think about how this little tidbit affected you. Cause there is a pretty good chance you just wrote it off, just like the spineless bastards who stood by and let Simone Back and Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax die. Because hey, it isn't your problem, why should you get worked up over it?
But those Seven aren't the only primal evils. They've got brothers and sisters in crime. These other sins are known as Apathy, Deception, Short Sightedness, Prejudice, Willful Ignorance, Exploitation, and Fear. They don't get as much attention as the more traditional seven, but they are just as, if not more, damaging to our development as a species.
First up is Apathy, the distant cousin of Sloth. Apathy is indifference, its just not caring about anything that doesn't affect you. Its being unwilling to rock the boat, to try and make change or even have an opinion. Apathy is evil by omission. Look at every genocide, every dictatorship, every singularly vile act in human history and you'll find people who knew that things were messed up but said nothing. Apathy is letting monstrous shit happen because you don't have the guts to make a stand.
On April 18, 2010 a Guatemalan immigrant called Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed several times while trying to save a woman from an attack. He bled to death in the street as people walked by, doing nothing to help him. The only person who stopped only did so to take a picture of him dying with a camera phone. And this isn't the only case of such behavior. On Christmas Day, 2010, a charity worker by the name of Simone Back posted a suicide note on Facebook. The message was short and simple, "Took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye every one." The response from her 1,082 "friends" was to mock her. While she died of an intentional overdose, these people, some of whom lived within walking distance, called her a liar and argued with each other. No one even bothered to inform her mother of the note until seventeen hours later. Simone's mother posted a message on Facebook announcing her daughters death and asking her friends to please leave her alone. These people who claimed to be her friends were still insulting and arguing about Simone even after she was dead.
I'm sorry, does this make you feel uncomfortable? Does hearing about the indifference and cowardice of people who do nothing while people suffer around them offend you? Good, because it should. This should make you angry and sick inside. But does it? Think about how this little tidbit affected you. Cause there is a pretty good chance you just wrote it off, just like the spineless bastards who stood by and let Simone Back and Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax die. Because hey, it isn't your problem, why should you get worked up over it?
