Indifference

So many people I had never heard of.  Until now.  I’ve heard of them now.  Yesterday I hadn’t.  Today I have.  What a difference a day makes.  The guy I’d never heard of yesterday but have today was Elie Wiesel.  He was a journalist and book writer.  So much he said blew me away. 
Speaking of certain prisoners “they were dead and did not know it.” “…to be indifferent…is what makes the human being inhuman.”  “…indifference benefits the aggressor – never his victim.”  He spoke at the White House many years ago.  Last century in fact.
It is something else he said that got me thinking. “Indifference is always the friend of the enemy.”  It sort of reminds me of the saying that says “all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
I do not know how many times I have heard it said “I don’t care…”  Often that is code for “I really care a lot.”  Sometimes though, people really do not care.  Personally I would prefer that someone feels something.  That they are not indifferent.  It does not matter to me if their view is diametrically opposed to mine.  They feel something.
The matter does not need to be front and centre of existence, and a person need not bang their head about it.  Unless of course they are head bangers, and then they can do two things at once.  Some things matter.  Many don’t.  Reminds me of “love me or hate me but don’t ignore me.”
The thing to me about indifference is it can be really dangerous.  Not just to me but to others.  If a Gazelle is indifferent to a lion in its midst then it is easy pickings.  Just for self-preservation it needs to care.
I cannot afford to be indifferent to road rules.  If I walk out in front of traffic there is a good chance I will be hit.  That is dangerous for me, causes angst in others, and involves so much paperwork.  Really, it is better not to go there.  I remember Bruce in Bruce Almighty kneeling down in the middle of the road.  The next scene showed him in hospital.  God said to him, if you kneel in the middle of the road, there is a good chance you will be hit. 
If I am indifferent, then I really cannot credibly regale against something that happens that I don’t like or agree with.  ‘What did I do?”  “Errr nothing.”  Then for sure I got what was coming to me.  In sport, if I do nothing, then the other person wins on a forfeit.
In table tennis I am generally the best player around as long as my opponent is severely injured and can’t make it.  I can’t be indifferent though.  I need to turn up.
Ash Barty did not become the world number one through indifference.  She worked at it .  She fought for it.  If she had not, then that would be another person I, along with most others, had never heard of.
In politics if I am indifferent, I always win.  In life if I am indifferent, I will always lose.