There is a saying that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indeed, in this day and age I'd rather it be hate or any kind of human emotion than a simple lack of feeling. Without denying, indifference -whether conscious or unconscious - is a downright inhumane way to approach someone; it could be a method used to purposely forget someone, or to not get involved in what could possibly result in problematical situations. Either way, indifference is only a temporary hideout that fails to best serve us.
The unfortunate truth is that we are trained by our society to be indifferent. Looking at it from an individual's perspective, this is trying to get out of love, and trying to be indifferent towards the people with whom we have had a falling-out. In fact, people tell us to forget about past love. Such effort, however, is more difficult than letting our thoughts flow as they would without denying and resisting them. There may be an exception for a few people who can control their thoughts, but for the majority of us, to forget (essentially to be indifferent), we watch movies, hang out with friends, drink alcohol, become workaholics or do whatever comes our way to not take the time to remember anything of past relationships. Our friends most readily assist us on such lists of activities. If we ask our elders though, they will probably suggest that we let things be the way they are. Let it be. If tears creep up then let them fall, if you want to cry out loud, then do as you desire. Once you devote yourself to your true emotions, time will take you through the difficult moments. It will pass, as many other things do.
Though our elementary school teachers implored us to be brave, loving, caring and knowledgeable enough to bring a positive change to the world and implanted in us the belief that we can achieve anything together, once we hit a certain point in our lives we simply give in to the mundane rhythm of life. We do our best to get along with the general flow of society without causing much turbulence. In doing so, we become indifferent about many things. We try not to get involved in situations that may cause us harm or bother us in any way. We try to be part of the majority, not the minority for we are afraid of being "different." We try not to get our hands dirty because as long as we are safe and well, nothing really matters to us. Then we become used to accepting things the way they are and that is when in some way or another, unconscious indifference - the really scary kind of indifference - kicks in. Everything looks smooth and calm on the surface, but what lies beneath turns out to be quite tragic. In the end, instead of making the harmonious society we dream of, we create a boring frame of life in which people are only interested in progress and tangible improvement.
As a real-life example, the suffering of rape victims from the film Dogani (released as The Crucible in English) clearly demonstrates how indifferent our society can be to a minority. Though some warm-hearted and righteous people helped bring out the problem into the frame of society, they, along with the minorities, were initially oppressed and ignored. The problem is only rising to the surface again because the majority feels it is indeed wrong, because the majority is raging against it and because the issue fortunately caught society's attention at the right time with the right amount of impact. With this being our waking moment, we should find our true values again. We must return to what made us human in the first place and learn again to feel real emotions. We must learn to sympathize with others and engage their problems for they are ultimately ours as well. Why keep your mind shut when you have open eyes and ears? Please, break away from your hideout; you do not belong there.
Yoo Hee Kang
yoohee1222@kaist.ac.kr