VANISHING CYPRUS
By Andreas C
Chrysafis
March 2011 (No16)
Social Apathy…
Apathy can be summed up as a state of mind where an individual has an absence of interest or concern to certain aspects of emotional, social or physical life. These feelings of lack of interest can also cause rapid deterioration in governments, its institutions and public services but most worryingly, it affects the nation in the worse possible way. If not tackled with “surgical precision”, apathy can quickly develop into an affliction!
This new phenomenon is normally brought about due to stress and disillusionment where it quickly manifests a feeling of “indifference” and “helplessness". When that happens, it triggers off an avalanche of inter-related psychological and physical problems, which in due course can become impossible to deal with. Imaginary or real, apathy should be eradicated but such a process cannot be done so easily! Once ethos sets in, it will take years to get rid of its detrimental effects on individuals and society at large; it is absolute!
If the present behaviour is the measuring stick of yesterday’s policy results, then today’s attitudes can be summed up as the main cause of social apathy. Plato, the greatest thinker of all times affirmed that: “the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”. He was certainly not wrong!
Globalization,
brutal capitalism, manipulation by the media, especially by television and
government shortsightedness, could be considered as the leading players of
generating insecurity so commonly experienced by people, right across the
social spectrum. With the ever-growing unsustainable materialistic
philosophy on self-indulgence and consumerism, those forces have fostered
public attitudes never experienced before. Consumer indoctrination
has been cleverly applied to appeal to people’s emotions and not
necessarily to their reasoning. Undoubtedly,
materialism has become the defining measure of success and has touched
every sector of society at the expense of everything else.
As it happens, the majority of people live in a world filled with insecurity and share grave concerns for the future. Historically, there has never been such negativity and lack of interest in the political process, religion or social behaviour. The stable community care of the past has been diminished and replaced by the desire to “prosper by accumulation” of “material things” at any cost. This social trend on materialism has been cleverly implanted in people’s minds through mass media manipulation and clever marketing ploys, as a means to instantaneous gratification. Consumerism has become addictive and people buy products indiscriminately, believing it will make their lives easier and more appealing.
An additional contributing factor to apathy is the prevailing trend of unbridled hedonism. Due to feelings of “hopelessness” and “indifference ”, society has turned itself towards hedonistic entertainment as an antidote to its economic and social woes. Unable to resolve pondering issues, people have chosen to become observers; watching with enthusiasm thrilling and often gory shows that appeal to their senses rather than their common sense. Football hooliganism, anti-social behaviour, uncalled-for violence and brute force inside the arenas attract hundreds of spectators. They flood the stadiums to watch their idols to “battle it out” or to “perform” with their fists rather than with their sporting skills as a means of escapism; Salve Lactum, just like the Romans did in the Coliseum!
It
is much easier to be passively controlled than to take initiative, and
perplex societies such as Cyprus, are ideal candidates on fostering
apathy. The socio-economic conditions on the island have certainly
transformed the nation to the point that social consciousness has taken a
back seat. It has been replaced by a new culture, one that wallows in
materialism and divine apathy, while the government and its institutions
sink their heads in the sand believing that the problem will go away, or
it does not really exist!
Over
70% of people in Cyprus declared that they are politically and socially
disillusioned of the behaviour of the leadership and have lost interest in
politics or elections (Cymar
poll). Politicians are trained to perform just like actors playing their part
in a play, and this sort of shallow attitude, certainly adds to the
prospect of apathy taking root in a society.
Some
people may believe, that it’s their right to act indifferently to
others’ needs and have become desensitized to things that do not affect
them personally. This is a classic behaviour of public indifference, and
its negative effects can quickly escalate into a domino effect. The
existence and fostering of such pessimistic views, offer little scope or
optimism of ever changing.
There
are obvious indicators that apathy has prevailed over common sense for a
variety of reasons, such as; the ongoing refugee dilemma; people’s jobs
are at risk; unemployment; falling living standards; disillusionment,
political shenanigans and institutional corruption but above all else,
there are no obvious social models to aspire by and create a caring
society build on fairness. For the less privileged sectors of society it
means living without hope, while the wealthy are getting wealthier and the
poor are getting poorer! These are valid reasons for public discontent and
the escalation of social apathy…
All
considered there is always a solution to a problem! The way to wipe out
apathy can only be with the introduction of fairer policies, but most
importantly by: Education! Education and Education! But, what kind of
education? One that fosters: “do as you’re told” or one that
endorses the concept of “taking initiatives and leadership”.
In
Cyprus such progressive mentality has never existed. People behaved as
“followers” rather than “leaders”, and this stigma can be
attributed to an intractable unionized education system, unwavering
traditions and dogmatic religion. Emperor Justinian I in 529AD, decreed
that all philosophy schools to be closed down, because… as an absolute
Monarch and god’s representative on earth, he perceived that such free
thoughts were at odds with the Christian faith, which demanded blind
obedience, subservience and dogmatic blindness to passions, new ideas and
new thoughts.
Education is the light out of the darkness, and it’s crucially important to provide the opportunity for students to make choices, and become independent thinkers to discover and learn for themselves; such training will ultimately create a caring community free from apathy! Students of all ages can then learn to develop the manner by which to become ethical people, as opposed to people who merely do as what they are told. This means they create trusting relationships and feel safe; a crucial ingredient for success! For those who want to take control or abandon power this can be a scary experience...
Such freethinking and inventiveness is badly missing from the present education system including government, businesses and society at large. What is even more disturbing, the majority of graduates have been psychologically molded to aspire for a career in the public sector; they’d rather have security at hand than take daring initiatives! Then again, society in Cyprus - dominated by a stagnating political culture and unions - has always encouraged new generations to maintain the status quo by means of nepotism as a way forward. Now a big majority of them are utterly spoilt, demanding and depending on materialistic “things” as a way of life, rather than aim for social consciousness.
Such self-serving mentality does not do any good in a progressive society. Cyprus needs to groom and train new freethinking citizens and not social puppets! Students on the other hand, should be free persons with free minds to explore new ideas and not be brainwashed by the existing old-fashioned political cultures. So far, the principle of “do as you are told”, it has not produced encouraging results, and as long as it continues unchallenged, apathy will nibble away at peoples’ aspirations.
Author of:
WHO SHALL
GOVERN CYPRUS – Brussels or Nicosia? -Political analysis
ANDARTES - a revolutionary riveting novel
PORPHYRA in PURPLE - a metaphysical spellbinding novel
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