Tuesday, March 9, 2010

the quiet stealth of indifference

Indifference: The state or quality of being indifferent.

Indifferent: 1. Having no particular interest or concern; 2. Having no marked feeling for or against; 3. Being neither too much nor too little; moderate; 4.  Not active or involved; neutral. 

There is a moment.  Everyone encounters it.  Before that moment the logical processing of your brain is skewed and you think something will be great, something will fix everything that's wrong, something will make you happy.  Even though your true rational knows this is not true, just before that moment you want to believe it is.  In the actual moment, in the very midst of that moment, is when you acknowledge that you just conjured a logical fallacy and, what's worse, you're indifferent.

You know you should have more interest and concern, you should have marked feelings, you should have too much or too little, you should be active and involved rather than Switzerland! For heavens sake, you need to have a feeling one way or the other!

And yet... you can't help indifference. No one can.  And that's the stealth and danger such neutrality springs on its victim.
I am indifferent, thus I am dangerous.

3 comments:

Ali said...

Why have I not checked your blog in so long?! I've missed so many posts. This is very deep and very true. I have been feeling indifferent about a lot of things a lot of the time lately. The only things that come to mind immediately at the moment that I DON'T feel indifferent about are all food. I have very marked feelings FOR green curry, chocolate, mojitos, and Dr. Pepper. Maybe I can expand that to include things that actually matter . . . haha

sarah said...

Being indifferent can't be that bad. The only reason the Swiss can bring us fantastic chocolate like Toblerone is because they aren't all concerned about foreign wars and whatever.
They make really beautiful chocolate.
I say... You can be Swiss.
Thanks for always hosting Grey's night. It's my favorite. Also, I love the little bird on your blog.

Heather said...

I think indifference is a blessing a lot of the time. In that case, you don't get hurt or disappointed!! but, it is good to have a preference for some things! :) love you, and don't worry, I am indifferent on a lot of things too! And I love Swiss chocolate too.