Redtree Times

Uncertain Times— At the West End Gallery

Ignorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.

–Philip Wylie, Generation of Vipers (1942)

As concerned as I am about the horror show taking place within our country at this time, I am even more worried about the apathy about it that seems prevalent among a majority of our citizens. Hoping for the best and other forms of wishful thinking are no better than ignoring it completely. And the only thing to be said for burying your head in the sand is that it might spare your head when it all inevitably blows up.

Even that little bit of protection is doubtful, of course.

Philip Wylie said it best with the words above from his 1942 book, Generation of Vipers, which was a scathing diatribe against the malaise, ignorance, and self-interest that he saw taking place in this country in the run up to our eventual involvement in WW II. In the paragraph that precedes this passage, Wylie writes that though you might try to build a wall around yourself to insulate yourself from harm or responsibility from the outside world, both will eventually make their way to you. Therefore, you have a responsibility for the fate of all men, in the same way that they are responsible for your fate.

It is very much in the spirit of John Donne and his Meditation XVII from 1624:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

This apathy has obviously been a problem throughout the history of mankind. Apathy has a strong foothold in who we are as Americans. We have been led to believe that we rose up en masse to fight for our independence during the American Revolution. The fact is that only about a third of our citizenry fervently desired our independence while another third wanted to remain loyal to the British crown. The final third didn’t care and didn’t want to be involved.

They would go in whichever direction the wind blew.

And that’s not always a good thing.

I submit a song as evidence of that. It’s I Don’t Care Much from the musical Cabaret, which dealt with people who turned a blind eye to the growing authoritarian regime that was taking over Germany in the 1930’s. The cabaret was a symbol for those people who just didn’t want to take a side, didn’t want to think about right or wrongs. People who just wanted to have a good time and hope that things would just work out without their participation.

Wanted to believe that they didn’t have to care much.

That belief, thinking that one could just ignore the coming atrocity without being touched, proved to be less than effective. Ask the 60 or 70 or 80 million folks who died in WW II. I am not saying that is where this all leads at this point, but I cannot say with any certainty that it isn’t the path we’re on. Especially with so many of us willing to say “Oh, well. It is what it is…”

Here’s the song I Don’t Care Much performed by Alan Cumming as the Emcee from the 2013 Broadway production of Cabaret:

FYI:  Philip Wylie wrote the book, Gladiator, on which the Superman comics were based. It’s a good read.