Is Apathy An Act of Evil?

[WoselTenzin]

According to an online dictionary, apathy is defined as the lack of interest or concern, especially in matters of general importance or the lack of feeling or emotion. 

In Buddhism, the act of non-virtuous action of body, speech and mind is spelled out very clearly - no killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, idle chatter, hatred, malice and wrong view.

Many a times we think that as long as we do not engage in such action directly, we do not incur any negative karma.

However, what if we live in an environment that all these negative actions are being committed around us and we choose to be apathetic about it because it does not affect us directly.  In this case, by condoning such an act through our apathy, are we not also committing an act of evil?

[vajrastorm]

To me apathy towards an act of negativity, like killing, is a silent act of condoning and even colluding with the act itself.

Take, for instance, we come across a case of violent abuse and torture of a dog to death. We just walk past it and say or do nothing about it. This is to me, silent support of this cruel act. Even though the negativity we incur with apathy is not as great as that incurred by the perpetrator of the negative act, still condoning or silent 'colluding with act carries a certain degree of negative karma.

Again, if ,say, we're shown very graphically how animals are being brutally slaughtered to produce the meat for our dinner, and we still go on eating meat afterwards....To me this is another classic case of indifference towards animals being killed for food for us. Again this apathy must surely carry some burden of responsibility for the killing of that animal that eventually becomes our food.It must surely translate into negative karma of some form for us.

[samayakeeper]

Is Apathy An Act of Evil?    

Most of us do not want to speak out when an injustice or crime of a negative action is taking place or had occurred. Maybe because we fear rejection, retaliation, etc but I think two of the many reasons are selfishness and a do not care attitude. Just my thoughts.

[Positive Change]

To me apathy towards an act of negativity, like killing, is a silent act of condoning and even colluding with the act itself.

Take, for instance, we come across a case of violent abuse and torture of a dog to death. We just walk past it and say or do nothing about it. This is to me, silent support of this cruel act. Even though the negativity we incur with apathy is not as great as that incurred by the perpetrator of the negative act, still condoning or silent 'colluding with act carries a certain degree of negative karma.

Again, if ,say, we're shown very graphically how animals are being brutally slaughtered to produce the meat for our dinner, and we still go on eating meat afterwards....To me this is another classic case of indifference towards animals being killed for food for us. Again this apathy must surely carry some burden of responsibility for the killing of that animal that eventually becomes our food.It must surely translate into negative karma of some form for us.

What Vajrastorm shares here rings very true. Apathy is a choice. And a choice is a decision made and as such the choice surely must have its benefits or repercussion.  In the instance of choosing apathy and using it as an "excuse" or "justification" that we did not partake in a negative action is therefore wrong.

The age old saying of "For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”. - Simon Wiesenthal" is befitting this deluded state of indifference.

Sure perhaps it may not carry as heavy the negative karma as committing the negative act itself but when we choose to ignore it long enough I am sure the accumulated negative karma through non action is just as strong as the action itself.

Hence to sum up... Apathy an Act = Yes, Could it be Evil = Potentially

[hope rainbow]

"For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”. - Simon Wiesenthal

APATHY = LACK OF COMPASSION, LACK OF ANGER

COMPASSION = I AM HURT WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

ANGER = I AM HAPPY WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

Apathy arises from a lack of wisdom, just as anger, when we think that the suffering of another being is not our suffering.
Compassion arises towards the people I love.
Hatred arises towards the people I hate.
Apathy arises towards the people that I neither love, nor hate, people that are neutral, people I don't care about. Who are these people? most likely the entire universe except maybe 10 people that I love or hate. This is why I can watch thousands of people killed by a tsunami wave on TV and eat my dinner at the same time. I could not do that while watching my mother die, and I might be happy to see on TV a dictator being hung.

Apathy brings about neutral karma.
Neutral karma = I am going down.

[Damian.D]

Apathy to me is an act of ignorance.

Yes towards others it is an act of evil most definitely, its like standing by watching an old woman get robbed of her handbag, beaten down and left bleeding and unconscious. Then just turning your back and walking away.

To one's self it is the most evil. A Self deception in thinking that it won't affect us directly. Surely the karma will create the cause that no matter what we wish to achieve we never will be able to overcome starting anything, or obstacles will come to make it more difficult to even start change or transformation towards anything that is good for us.

Like slavery but we are the slave master and the slave all in one, completely self created.

[Helena]

There's a famous saying that goes something like this - for evil to triumph, good men just need to do nothing.

Doing nothing might equate to apathy because we just don't care. WE are in no way bothered, moved or touched, let alone, inspired to do anything.

Without emotions, which is essentially what apathy is about - how can one feel compassion, kindness and even care?

To care for others is a primary criteria for Bodhichitta. So, for someone to feel nothing but apathy, how would care develop?

It may not be evil, but it might be a necessary platform for evil to manifest.

Nothing good comes out of apathy that's for sure.

[triesa]

"For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”. - Simon Wiesenthal

APATHY = LACK OF COMPASSION, LACK OF ANGER

COMPASSION = I AM HURT WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

ANGER = I AM HAPPY WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

Apathy arises from a lack of wisdom, just as anger, when we think that the suffering of another being is not our suffering.
Compassion arises towards the people I love.
Hatred arises towards the people I hate.
Apathy arises towards the people that I neither love, nor hate, people that are neutral, people I don't care about. Who are these people? most likely the entire universe except maybe 10 people that I love or hate. This is why I can watch thousands of people killed by a tsunami wave on TV and eat my dinner at the same time. I could not do that while watching my mother die, and I might be happy to see on TV a dictator being hung.

Apathy brings about neutral karma.
Neutral karma = I am going down.

Hope Rainbow, I like what you wrote here....

So can neutral karma brings about evil in the end?  By not doing anything good nor bad, does that mean I am evil?

[Positive Change]

There's a famous saying that goes something like this - for evil to triumph, good men just need to do nothing.

Doing nothing might equate to apathy because we just don't care. WE are in no way bothered, moved or touched, let alone, inspired to do anything.

Without emotions, which is essentially what apathy is about - how can one feel compassion, kindness and even care?

To care for others is a primary criteria for Bodhichitta. So, for someone to feel nothing but apathy, how would care develop?

It may not be evil, but it might be a necessary platform for evil to manifest.

Nothing good comes out of apathy that's for sure.

Apathy is certainly not something one should be proud of or striving for. Apathy is in essence not caring or being insensitive. Void of emotion. Empty even! Why would anyone think this is good? As Helena points out, this is most certainly a platform for evil to manifest. For me personally, I agree, that apathy in itself may not be evil but it certainly is not good either. So if we should ever feel we are indifferent, that is cause for concern as it contrary to our spiritual practice.

[hope rainbow]

"For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”. - Simon Wiesenthal

APATHY = LACK OF COMPASSION, LACK OF ANGER

COMPASSION = I AM HURT WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

ANGER = I AM HAPPY WHEN SOMEONE IS HURT

Apathy arises from a lack of wisdom, just as anger, when we think that the suffering of another being is not our suffering.
Compassion arises towards the people I love.
Hatred arises towards the people I hate.
Apathy arises towards the people that I neither love, nor hate, people that are neutral, people I don't care about. Who are these people? most likely the entire universe except maybe 10 people that I love or hate. This is why I can watch thousands of people killed by a tsunami wave on TV and eat my dinner at the same time. I could not do that while watching my mother die, and I might be happy to see on TV a dictator being hung.

Apathy brings about neutral karma.
Neutral karma = I am going down.

Hope Rainbow, I like what you wrote here....
So can neutral karma brings about evil in the end?  By not doing anything good nor bad, does that mean I am evil?

Dear Triesa,

Thank you for your post.

I don't think nobody is evil.
In fact, Buddhism has this strength of not classifying between "good people" and "evil people", but it explains the characteristics of "good actions" and "evil actions".

"good actions" and "evil actions" concepts relate to the 10 refuge vows, the 10 poisons.

"good actions" done with expectation of something good for oneself in return = good karma.
"good actions" done with expectation of something good for others in return = merits.
(it is literally impossible to achieve this mindset from an un-enlightened working of the mind, thus this is acquired by partaking in the actions of an enlightened being = what we call the merit-field, a field that is kind of "borrowed" until our actions become a merit-field themselves)
"no good - no bad actions" generate neutral karma = not good nor bad karma
"evil actions" thus definitely done at the expenses of others (and me) = bad karma

bad karma = I am to suffer the consequences of evil done to others by me as evil experienced by me, now or later.

good karma = I am to suffer the consequences of good done to others by me as good experienced by me, now or later.

merit = I am to experience conditions conducive for my spiritual practice

neutral karma = nothing new coming in, no good karma no bad karma, no merit, thus all I do is using my good karma until it runs out; then the biggest bunch of karma I have created takes over; the biggest bunch can only be bad karma as I have accumulated bad karma for eons and have done nothing to renew my good karma, not to mention merits.
Thus, I am going down.
This does not mean that I am an evil person, it means I am experiencing my bad karma.
Why do I experience my bad karma? Because evil actions are against my nature and until I realize that and act in consequence, I will have to suffer karma.

I even think this:
if I WAS evil, by essence, if "evil" was my nature... How could I possibly create bad karma by acting in accordance with my nature?
I think this is impossible, there no evil nature, only evil actions.
There is only buddhahodd nature.
I think Pol Pot or Hitler have Buddhahood nature, they may be a long way away from realizing it, but it is their nature.

Am I making sense?

[kurava]

"For evil to triumph, good men just need to do nothing"

How can we call people that just standby and do nothing seeing others suffer under violence  and injustice as GOOD MEN?

How did Hitler manage to kill hundreds of thousands  of Jews? He did this because the "GOOD MEN" chose to turn a blind eye to the atrocities.

All the world's evils were committed because the "GOOD MEN" allowed them to happen.

I think the answer is quite clear that "GOOD MEN" are just as guilty as the bad guys.

[triesa]

"For evil to triumph, good men just need to do nothing"

How can we call people that just standby and do nothing seeing others suffer under violence  and injustice as GOOD MEN?

How did Hitler manage to kill hundreds of thousands  of Jews? He did this because the "GOOD MEN" chose to turn a blind eye to the atrocities.

All the world's evils were committed because the "GOOD MEN" allowed them to happen.

I think the answer is quite clear that "GOOD MEN" are just as guilty as the bad guys.

I guess it make sense.....that's why buddha works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and eons to relieve the suffereings of ignorant beings like me....Buddhas will never stand there still and in a state of apathy.

[iloveds]

According to an online dictionary, apathy is defined as the lack of interest or concern, especially in matters of general importance or the lack of feeling or emotion. 

In Buddhism, the act of non-virtuous action of body, speech and mind is spelled out very clearly - no killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, idle chatter, hatred, malice and wrong view.

Many a times we think that as long as we do not engage in such action directly, we do not incur any negative karma.

However, what if we live in an environment that all these negative actions are being committed around us and we choose to be apathetic about it because it does not affect us directly.  In this case, by condoning such an act through our apathy, are we not also committing an act of evil?

I would feel that you are not committing the act of evil in the case of a dictator harsh rule for example, or a serial  rapist, or a murderer who are committing the crimes yet we don't do anything about it. Why? because our proximity is not as direct   to be able to do something about it. How could this equate to us committing an evil act.

The negative karma that would come we be more related to our own apathetic reaction should we be put in a situation where we are faced with a decision to act or not.

Many times we will either manipulate the situation so that somebody else will take the responsibility by lying / or choosing our words carefully, or by diverting attention from our own lack of action. This simple form of Apathy is a more evil act as it reinforces subtley at first but in the end builds up into a deep seated habituation.

Don't you think ducking and diving, lying or hinting / suggesting as methods to get out of the "doing" are forms of APATHY and hence an EVIL act?

[WoselTenzin]

Many times we will either manipulate the situation so that somebody else will take the responsibility by lying / or choosing our words carefully, or by diverting attention from our own lack of action. This simple form of Apathy is a more evil act as it reinforces subtley at first but in the end builds up into a deep seated habituation.

Don't you think ducking and diving, lying or hinting / suggesting as methods to get out of the "doing" are forms of APATHY and hence an EVIL act?

I would think that intentional avoidance of responsibility by lying, ducking etc is called irresponsibility coupled with sneakiness.  Apathy is when you see someone doing that before your very eyes and you keep quiet and not confront that person.  The reason for not confronting that person could be out of fear of that person for whatever logical or illogical reasons.  It could also be not wanting to take the responsibility of ensuring that the undesirable situation is fixed because of not caring enough or not wanting to go thru the hassle or simply too lazy to put in the effort .

Whatever the reasons are, it is evil because you knowingly allow something wrong to persist by not taking any action on your part.  It is no different from colluding with the evil.

[biggyboy]

To me apathy in not evil but rather of not wanting to look bad in the eyes of others.  More so because of pride and ego, one would not want to speak up which I agree with samayakeeper here.

In the light of this apathy can arose due to lack sense of purpose or meaning in their life.  Tendency he or she will shows signs of sluggish and sloppy to their well being and work.  In addition non-sensitive to others too like they are 'spaced-out'.