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Some may not understand this post and that’s okay, but indifference is cowardice and weakness. It is not a weapon to be used to ostracize and bully others into compliance, it is a symptom of a human failing based on pride and fear. To be indifferent is to be a coward.
I have an issue with cowards and bullies, I cannot abide either, but actually they are one and the same. Bullies are just cowards in disguise.
The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. It is where one walls themselves off from empathy, wraps themselves in arrogance and pride, and refuses to see the humanity in others, or even in your own self. It is about having a hard heart because you fear your own pain. To love is to hurt and that is just as true in romance as it is in having love for your fellow man. People will break your heart, that is what people do.
To attempt to walk in the world with a soft heart, keeping your face to the Light is extremely painful. You have to feel. You have to put yourself in others shoes. You have to care. And you have to endlessly repair the damage done to your own self, the price you will pay for caring. Keeping your heart soft heart in an insane world is not so easy. The world seeks to change us, to harden us and transform us into something we were never intended to be. It is a kind of war we wage, but victory is not to be found in attempting to wall oneself off protectively, defensively, timidly, celebrating our own perceived indifference.
It is an insane act of defiance against the world to go forth boldly with a soft heart. It is irrational, illogical, and bound to get you stomped on. It is also the right thing to do and very brave. That is where triumph lives, that is where victory is to be found. It’s called the triumph of hope over experience. Beauty for ashes. You have to fight for it.
They are so many people in the world who have walked in dark places, who are intimately acquainted with man’s inhumanity to man, who know exactly what evil is to be found there and yet they persist, they believe, they hope in spite of everything they have seen. They refuse to believe what they know, what is reinforced all around them, and they keep their eyes focused on something better, on another way.
Is it courageous to accept “reality,” to congratulate yourself on your ability to confront it as it really is with complete indifference? No, that is actually to lay down and die, to throw in the towel and opt out. Because there is always a huge deception there, your own perceptions of what “reality” is, are subjective, limited, and often based on experiences and wounding.
Is it foolish to believe in a reality you cannot see? Oh yes, from the perspective of logic and reason, it is quite foolish. It requires endless sacrifice and a willingness to experience discomfort. There really is no obvious payoff except to have defied the world and triumphed.
John 16:33 tells us, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.“
Christ paved the way for us all to follow in His footsteps and overcome the world. Indifference however, is the precise opposite of what He taught.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Reblogged this on Socially Awkward Geek Girl Is Happy and commented:
The opposite of love is not hate – it is indifference. Just accepting the world as it is and not even trying to effect change or stand up for your beliefs does not do anyone any good.
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Thank you for the reblog 😉
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Bravo bravo. Go forth boldly with a soft heart. Love that as it describes our role perfectly. On a side note indifference on our part results in people renaming lost. Indifference from a Christian concerning the lost is a grave sin. I would even go farther and say indifference to the lost should make one check the state of themselves. Ok I’m done
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Perfect, Wally. I also believe that indifference for a Christian is a sin. Christ was not indifferent to us, so we have no business being indifferent to anyone else.
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Amen
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Remaining lost auto correct strikes again sorry
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Reblogged this on Holly T. Ashley and commented:
Fantastic!
“Christ paved the way for us all to follow in His footsteps and overcome the world. Indifference however, is the precise opposite of what He taught.”
-Insanity Bytes22
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Thank you for the reblog 😉
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I was a victim of bullying from age 11 until high school. even in my college days my tormentors were relentless. The cowardice, the jealousy and the ignorance were resounding through the torment. I hope people will come to this article and find some understanding and find the support they need.
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I’m sorry for the bullying. Thanks for your kind words and I too hope people will find understanding and support.
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I use to joke (bitterly) that “I am a Christian, I will just pray that they die” it was a terrible prayer but I was a child. lol sorry.
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I did that myself once, at a football game, and the guy dropped right in front of me. He had some sort of heart defect that no one knew about. He survived but I almost didn’t. I thought for sure I had killed him. 😉
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ha ha. that must be funny and scary at the same time.
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Excellent post. I remember when I entered treatment the first doctor I saw considered my idealism a symptom of emotional regression. I asked her when the loss if a sense of possibility became a standard measure for adulthood. I asked her what she would say to Martin Luther King or John Kennedy or Harvey Milk. My vision is born of theirs.
I finally told her that I did not want to be made to accept a callous betrayal of the ideal of a just world. I wanted to be healed of an illness. Idealism is not an illness or a symptom of one. Indifference is.
Thank you for a thought provoking post.
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Thanks for reading and for your kind words. I believe you, I have encountered people who seem to believe idealism is some sort of emotional defect. LOL, those kind of people have issues.
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They have big issues..they use their authority to impose conformity.
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Amen to that.
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My dear friend – I would like to use this on our radio show Friday – It will be a great introduction to our kick off of our Political Fitness series. 🙂 Is that ok?
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Yes, that’s okay. Thanks for asking and I hope you find it useful 😉
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Theologically, you and I have taken different paths, but agree with you 100% when you state “It is an insane act of defiance against the world to go forth boldly with a soft heart. It is irrational, illogical, and bound to get you stomped on. It is also the right thing to do”.
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Thanks, Barry. Our paths are not all that different. 😉
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I can agree with this. Good job.
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Yup, struck gold again there IB, nice job. Brings to mind, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” Matthew 5:13
Go forth and be salty, the world will be better for it!
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The policeman who works his guts out and risks his life everyday only to be charged with capital crimes for doing his job, might be motivated to become indifferent.
A teacher who works with youngsters who act more like beasts or asylum inmates in a system that is itself indifferent, might be motivated to become indifferent.
Voters who choose candidates who promise honesty and then go off to govern as liars and thieves, might be motivated to become indifferent.
In such a collapsing civilization courage is rewarded with ruin more often than not.
These thoughts from a former school teacher who never became indifferent but nevertheless met with the ruin of his mind, heart and body, for his efforts.
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I can certainly empathize. No good deed goes unpunished and courage is often met with ruin.
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Insanity,
Under our present regime of Progressivism (which is nothing more than tyranny), indifference grows like a snow ball that first started out as a few flakes of snow, but joins with countless other flakes of snow to become a thundering, massive tsunami of frozen death and destruction.
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I hear you, Silence. There is an orchestra playing and the conductor is leading us all towards indifference, identity politics, and outright hostility. I fear what’s coming.
Just the same, we are called to fight it, to defy it, to refuse to allow ourselves to be manipulated into indifference and hatred. I don’t know how it will all turn out, but I don’t like being manipulated, so even love can become an act of defiance and resistance.
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Insanity,
Here is what I think of that:
Resist We Much!
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=imgres&cd=&ved=0CAkQjBwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.cpcache.com%2Fproduct_zoom%2F578456562%2Fsharpton_resist_we_much_stainless_steel_water_bottle.jpg%3Fheight%3D250%26width%3D250%26padToSquare%3Dtrue&ei=UMNUVfCkCMG3sAWTkICACQ&psig=AFQjCNGhqlgKOos8Q0cJ_HkYYRPZvDUiBg&ust=1431704784201925
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LOL! Often those who squawk the loudest are the smallest minority and the most wrong. We should pay them as little mind as possible. Always easier said than done, of course.
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I agree IB – I call it apathy, just another word for indifference. It is insidious and creeps through our society -we are even going to lose our democracy to a dictatorship because we are too apathetic to vote. We will lose our souls to indifference because we fail to care about our fellow man. And the very worst part is that all this damage is from just doing nothing.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke
I hate to admit this, though, but i have to say that SoM speaks the truth today – many are driven to apathy or indifference by circumstances beyond their control. The only way i can see to reconcile SoM’s words with my beliefs is to say that if one finds themselves indifferent then perhaps the circumstances have to be changed. So instead of saying we must not be indifferent to anything, perhaps we should say that indifference is inimical hence when it occurs it requires a change of circumstances. That can be interpreted to either mean look at things differently or get the heck out of Dodge cause this ain’t your cup ‘o tea. And I have to admit, there are jobs and situations in the world (Ha! – I had a typo there that said “word” and realized after I corrected it, that it was just as true as “world”) that would make me indifferent – so i should pursue that which does not make me indifferent. A sort of rough guide to meaning in life. Whatcha think IB? I guess that would again, roughly, translate to “follow your heart”.
Great post IB – and Thank You SoM.
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I think that is a great “rough guide to meaning in life.” We need to take responsibility for our indifference, get out, change our attitude, or find something else to focus on. I do empathize however, often indifference is what we do when we’re just done, tired of being stomped on, can’t invest anymore energy into it all.
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Absolutely a topic that requires regular revisitation – much like you can boil a frog by slowly turning up the heat and the frog does not notice – so too you can become indifferent in increments that you don’t notice until it is done. We definitely have to be on guard for ourselves and our loved ones 🙂
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“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who stand by and do nothing.” ~Albert Einstein
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I’m deep in the blogosphere now, avoiding that to-do list, and was lead here by exanimo7 ‘s reblog. I just wanted to again, thank you for this. This world gets uglier and uglier and, though I’m certainly not indifferent in my beliefs, I stay inside, A LOT, to avoid the pain and often times feel my heart hardening towards mankind. I lose hope now and then, and need to remember that it’s braver to be the Light in this dark and dreary world than it is to turn away from it.
Also, that’s probably my most favorite verse. That and, “Jesus wept.”
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