Are you familiar with social experiments with the plot “Will people help?” For example, with a child without a jacket at a bus stop in the middle of winter Stockholm. Or a man lying down near the bushes “fainted. The once-popular study.
So yesterday I came across a recent video – in coronavirus-ridden Seoul, a girl student in a wheelchair dropped her belongings on the pavement and couldn’t reach to collect them.
Intrigue…
No one helped her. In all seriousness. Out of a whole bunch of people of different ages, only a few came to her. Although the same Swedish boy five years ago was dressed in warm clothes for everyone. People looked around, some even stopped, and then turned around and walked past.
And the other day a friend of mine, who had a covid friend, said: “I don’t care what she has going on there. You should be ashamed of yourself for saying that, but I’m not. At all!”
Oh, I understand her very well! So did the people who passed by the Korean woman. “Corona,” after all, is the distance. Especially in Asia. It is strange that everyone had masks on their chins, but we will skip this point.
That’s what I mean. A new social norm has emerged: indifference.
In the past we were taught to empathize, to support, and somehow we still followed this social order, so as not to cause disapproval, but now your indifference will be understood by everyone. Because everyone is like that.
And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I notice these things myself. But there are several concerns about this trend:
– What will happen if we get to the point where everyone “doesn’t care” about others?
– Given that we all depend on each other economically, financially, psychologically, not to mention by blood ties-if everyone says, “I don’t care,” what will happen to each of us?
I’m not talking about going out and saving people at bus stops to close karma. But even in our thoughts… Can we still wish each other well at least in thought?
