Indifference

Love is not the opposite of hate. Both feelings emerge from the same yearning: the ambition of sharing. In love’s case there is the hope of reciprocity. With hate, hope is lost in the perception of rejection. The opposite of love and hate is indifference. Indifference is the forced and successful separation from that which threatens us. Indifference is a powerful and destructive weapon. We grow when we lay bridges that connect us. When we lift these bridges in an effort to protect psychological borders we run the risk of alienation. A temporary alienation is desirable in situations when we need to protect ourselves psychologically from outside attacks. In those cases, lifting the bridges, as in a medieval castle, allows us to temporarily survive the attack. Moments of introspection allow us to anchor ourselves in creative and noble idiosyncrasies. Permanent alienation turns us inhuman. Leaders and criminals assault their communities and fellow people motivated by continuous waves of alienation. Alone and without any type of lasting emotional connections, many of us survive through opportunism and abuse. But alienation ends up killing our souls. People without souls end up cannibalizing their most enduring values and shorten their physical, economic and spiritual life expectancies.

All of this looks like a flood of vagabond words, but it is more than that. In countries where opportunism and abuse reign supreme, human beings search for the lair of indifference in a bid to survive. In countries where respect and rule of law reign, people can open up to the idea of depending more on self- and group-improvement. People with souls create networks that allow for personal and collective improvement because they have protective nets for qualities that transcend the cruelties of the moment.

It is hard to understand how in Hitler’s Germany a couple of guards could abuse hundreds or thousands of unarmed Jews. The victims of Nazi repression had lost the capacity of emotionally responding to the abuse. What happened in ‘30s and ‘40s Germany has also occurred in many other countries, and is increasingly occurring in Latin America, with the rise in governments with dictatorial tendencies that abuse economic, security and political power. The cost for these nations and the continent is high. There will be lost generations that have lived their only life in indifference as an instrument of survival.

But how does one overcome indifference when it has become the most immediate tool for survival? The answer does not lie in miraculous spontaneities. The only way to overcome states of indifference is with “deference.” Deference is the process by which we appreciate our rights, and we carry out the duties of respecting and developing our own personal qualities. We differentiate between good and evil without excessive shows of emotions. We adopt correct ways of acting and reject those deemed improper. We don’t play dumb when it is convenient and accept moral inaction when it is not convenient or when we do not feel like fighting harsh remarks. Deference occurs when we support those that make an ideal effort to rectify mistakes and we respect the rights of everyone, including those we do not personally admire.

Difference and indifference have something in common. Both states subtract emotionality as an instrument for survival. But in “deferent” states emotionality is subtracted in order to respect the rights of others. In “indifferent” states emotionality is subtracted in order to allow the abuse of someone else’s rights. Deference allows us to grow spiritually. Indifference leads to the death of the spirit and profound social violence.

Resurrection of Libya or Diversions of a Despot

One of the most interesting and chameleonic leaders of contemporary politics is Muammar al-Gaddafi, revolutionary leader of Libya for the last 40 years. I am not, nor do I think of myself as, an expert on Gaddafi. I would rather develop other abilities. I observe Gaddafi from time to time, because he is great at reinventing himself and surprising us. He gives hope to those of us that are forced to withstand, at some point in time, the abuses of a tyrant.

Gaddafi was the leader of the first of OPEC’s arrogant challenges in the ‘70s, he protected terrorists over the years, trained revolutionaries, and threatened the world as much as he could from his poor but petro-powerful country. Gaddafi was a threat to world peace, until one day foreign planes bombarded his military bases and among the victims was one of his daughters and several of his colleagues. He was spared in the bombardment and I thought he would emerge from the experience even more bitter and resentful. It was not the case. Gaddafi disappeared from the public eye for a long time. Sometimes photos of him, looking tired and weary, would appear (I would have felt the same way, but dictators rebound from the punches like magic balls). However, he remained in power. A couple of years ago he put together a series of policies that seemed laudable, albeit a bit carried away by the imagination and dreams of economic grandeur. Libya would become a leader in technological education and would increase its industrial productivity. It sounded promising but a bit unrealistic given Libya’s history. But recently Gaddafi made a surprise announcement. He fired all members of his executive (I don’t think there is a Judicial or Legislative branch, per say, in Libya) for being corrupt. He has also stated that all oil revenues the country produces will be distributed directly to the people, since they are the real owners of the oil, which is true. It is an extreme and extremely sensible measure, assuming it is legitimate in its objective and not just a parody of power.

At a time when politicians around the world are lobbying for more intervention in the economy, justified by the failure of the global banking system and the possibility of a global economic recession, Gaddafi announces he is going in the opposite direction. He is going to leave the economic vote in the hands of the Libyan people. I’ll have to see it to believe it, but it is a valid idea. Increasing aggregate demand to bypass prospects of a global depression is quite sensitive if coupled with rule of law and other growth policies.

Maybe he won’t do anything and this is just his way of diverting the country’s attention, fighting political enemies and experimenting with other ways to communicate with his people. Who knows what problems Gaddafi and Libya face? In any case, the announcement gives some hope to the belief that good ideas can emerge from corrupt and incompetent systems. It give us hope that humanity and leaders that seem stuck from so many vantage points, sometimes, when they hit rock bottom, can come up with redeeming ideas.

History takes many unexpected turns, and that is why we should and should not believe in miracles. The only sustainable miracle is that of being alive and being able to contribute to the economic, spiritual and emotional growth of humanity. If we all pitch in, day in and day out, with work and morality, bravery and sensibility, put a stop to greed and our own pillaging, and signal a better path to our friends, little by little we will gain in economic and political democracy. That is the best and most lasting type of active resistance. Who knows what lies ahead for Gaddafi, but we can learn to respond to the daily and common attacks against our own dignity and responsibility with seriousness, dedication and determination to achieve the moral triumph of the community. If other leaders follow Gaddafi’s example and decide, without the help of vagabond intermediaries, to distribute the public purse, we should then be ready to take full advantage of those resources and invest in our future.