Caring and revulsion

I’m seeing a weird little pocket of people on Twitter bragging about how much they don’t give a shit about Ukraine and how fake it all is and how people who are talking about it are just ____ – you know, showing off, virtue signaling, following the woke herd, that kind of thing.

Well, first of all, nukes.

Second – why wouldn’t we give a shit? Why is it wrong to give a shit, and enlightened not to?

I suppose one answer could be that we can’t do anything about it, and paying attention and giving a damn is just self-indulgent or showing off or whatever. But I don’t think that’s right. I think paying attention and giving a damn does matter to the people who are having to live through this. Material help matters more, of course, but then material help starts with giving a damn, so the two are not opposites or either-or. And I think the people huddled in their basements listening to the shells explode do need to know we’re not singing a happy tune all the while.

Also, though…trying to dig a little harder…I don’t want to be the kind of person who doesn’t give a shit. Now that I say that I think there’s a philosopher or psychologist or someone who says that’s central to morality: not wanting to be the kind of person who doesn’t have any. I wonder who. Jonathan Haidt? Joshua Green? Patricia Churchland? I’m not remembering. Maybe it’s all of them, maybe it’s common knowledge. Anyway I don’t. Seeing people make callous jokes about Ukraine makes me feel sick. I suppose you can say that’s a self-regarding reason for caring therefore you don’t actually care at all, but…I still don’t think so. I think not wanting to be cruel or callous is…better than wanting to.

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