Apathy - Catalyst to Evil
Gather any group of ordinary adults together and ask them, "What is the opposite of love?" If you haven't tipped your hand in some manner, practically all of them will initially respond with, "Hate." Now, you might ponder, "Why I am asking them this?" Set that query aside for a moment. Focus on the response - it is categorically wrong.
Love and hate, as it happens, share far many more attributes than exhibit traits that differentiate them. In both instances, people under the influence of love and/or hate are moved to action beyond themselves. Admittedly, defining the terms "love," and "hate" would be a philosophical chore - suffice it to say, though, that as commonly used, love and hate do not collapse to the colloquial "Whateverrrr." While we might not act on every instance of love and/or hate we experience, we are, in fact, in 'reaction' to the instance - we have an opinion - we've assessed the situation, determined the goodness or badness of it and are experiencing a reaction. While evil (broadly defined) can exist in an evironment of love and hate - it cannot exist long in its initial manifestation. The power of love and hate will act against it as a foreign protein to the system. While it may seem, superficially, paradoxical to imagine hate working against evil, what other emotion best suits us to ward it off? We envision things as they should be - things are not that way - we, therefore, despise the offending obstacles.
Apathy - on the contrary, is the perfect medium for evil to not only exist in, but to flourish. Apathy says, "I'm not involved in this," "It's not my job," "The rules say I only have to do this...," "I don't know that person so what is to me...," "They brought it on themselves...," "I have my own problems." Apathy forms no opinion other than - "Whateverrrr." It allows the unthinkable to happen, because no one in the instance is thinking, "Should I being doing something about this."
This has been pretty abstract up to this point - but what got me to thinking about these themes is the case of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, the woman who writhed on the Emergency Room floor for 30 minutes, and subsequently died unattended, at Martin Luther King Jr. - Harbor Hospital, an inner-city Los Angeles County facility. Hospital Website here: Harbor Hospital.
The story of Edith Rodriquez is long - but the upshot is that nurses and other hospital employees, as captured by waiting-room security cameras, walked by her as she vomited blood and writhed on the floor - and did NOTHING. For comprehensive reporting on the story read here: LA Times Story
A particularly troubling aspect to the Rodriquez tragedy is the content and tone of the 911 calls. In both instances the 911 operators took no action to further understand the situation. While it is clear that sending an ambulance to an Emergency Room to assist a patient is highly unusual - nothing prevented either of them from electronically referring the matter to the LAPD for a patrol unit to assess the situation.
Of course, the police did show up - and arrested her:
"Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked at sending rescuers to a hospital. Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before she could be put into a squad car." (Quoted from here: LA Times )
I have monitored this story since the media picked it up - and have read comments from readers associated with the story online - at MSNBC, for example. And, even more disturbing than the tragedy itself, to me at least, are all of the comments that describe "how difficult it is to be a triage nurse in an inner-city ER," and "You can't sort out those just looking for pain pills from the true emergencies," and "All involved, from the 911 operators to the nurses, did what they were supposed to do." (that last was really the most disturbing - and infuriating - as it came from a supposed 'health' professional).
Death is not, properly, 'evil.' Dying in a hospital, or an ER, is not evil in itself. Rodriquez, due to her own choices, put herself on a road to an early grave, I'm not disputing that. But, to consider the apathy of those in authority regarding Rodriquez's humanity - that, I assert, is precisely the doorway to evil - a door that is easily held open by the 'rules,' and cynicism.
That the nurses involved received written counseling about how to behave in the future is a moral travesty - how do you teach a nurse to exhibit common human decency???
Apathy - a very dangerous, insidious social phenomenon - one we are all responsible for.
Love and hate, as it happens, share far many more attributes than exhibit traits that differentiate them. In both instances, people under the influence of love and/or hate are moved to action beyond themselves. Admittedly, defining the terms "love," and "hate" would be a philosophical chore - suffice it to say, though, that as commonly used, love and hate do not collapse to the colloquial "Whateverrrr." While we might not act on every instance of love and/or hate we experience, we are, in fact, in 'reaction' to the instance - we have an opinion - we've assessed the situation, determined the goodness or badness of it and are experiencing a reaction. While evil (broadly defined) can exist in an evironment of love and hate - it cannot exist long in its initial manifestation. The power of love and hate will act against it as a foreign protein to the system. While it may seem, superficially, paradoxical to imagine hate working against evil, what other emotion best suits us to ward it off? We envision things as they should be - things are not that way - we, therefore, despise the offending obstacles.
Apathy - on the contrary, is the perfect medium for evil to not only exist in, but to flourish. Apathy says, "I'm not involved in this," "It's not my job," "The rules say I only have to do this...," "I don't know that person so what is to me...," "They brought it on themselves...," "I have my own problems." Apathy forms no opinion other than - "Whateverrrr." It allows the unthinkable to happen, because no one in the instance is thinking, "Should I being doing something about this."
This has been pretty abstract up to this point - but what got me to thinking about these themes is the case of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, the woman who writhed on the Emergency Room floor for 30 minutes, and subsequently died unattended, at Martin Luther King Jr. - Harbor Hospital, an inner-city Los Angeles County facility. Hospital Website here: Harbor Hospital.
The story of Edith Rodriquez is long - but the upshot is that nurses and other hospital employees, as captured by waiting-room security cameras, walked by her as she vomited blood and writhed on the floor - and did NOTHING. For comprehensive reporting on the story read here: LA Times Story
A particularly troubling aspect to the Rodriquez tragedy is the content and tone of the 911 calls. In both instances the 911 operators took no action to further understand the situation. While it is clear that sending an ambulance to an Emergency Room to assist a patient is highly unusual - nothing prevented either of them from electronically referring the matter to the LAPD for a patrol unit to assess the situation.
Of course, the police did show up - and arrested her:
"Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked at sending rescuers to a hospital. Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before she could be put into a squad car." (Quoted from here: LA Times )
I have monitored this story since the media picked it up - and have read comments from readers associated with the story online - at MSNBC, for example. And, even more disturbing than the tragedy itself, to me at least, are all of the comments that describe "how difficult it is to be a triage nurse in an inner-city ER," and "You can't sort out those just looking for pain pills from the true emergencies," and "All involved, from the 911 operators to the nurses, did what they were supposed to do." (that last was really the most disturbing - and infuriating - as it came from a supposed 'health' professional).
Death is not, properly, 'evil.' Dying in a hospital, or an ER, is not evil in itself. Rodriquez, due to her own choices, put herself on a road to an early grave, I'm not disputing that. But, to consider the apathy of those in authority regarding Rodriquez's humanity - that, I assert, is precisely the doorway to evil - a door that is easily held open by the 'rules,' and cynicism.
That the nurses involved received written counseling about how to behave in the future is a moral travesty - how do you teach a nurse to exhibit common human decency???
Apathy - a very dangerous, insidious social phenomenon - one we are all responsible for.
posted by Scott Scofield | 9:29 PM
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