Madam,
Are we becoming conditioned to accept utter ruin? I’m worried that nothing shocks us anymore.
The war in Ukraine is still ongoing. People are still dying. Yet our focus has shifted to the Strait of Hormuz. Tomorrow it will shift again. How are we still dancing on TikTok while other people are suffering? Maybe because it only reaches us when it touches our pockets, when we stop at the fuel pump.
Is it a problem of information overload? Are too many wrong things happening all at once, forcing our attention spans to crash until we instinctively hit the ignore button? Or maybe our mental and emotional capacity has weakened over time. When a big headline invades your feed, it’s easier to swipe than to carry the weight of it.
Also, can we really blame people?
It is difficult to care about anything but hunger when you’re famished. You can’t expect someone struggling to survive to also carry the burden of global crises. Imagine being stuck in the Sahara Desert, battling heat, hunger and thirst, but still finding the energy to tweet: ‘Global warming is real #SaveTheWorld #Thirst’. It’s unrealistic. Survival will always come first.
Yet, something feels wrong. We are taking ‘ignorance is bliss’ too literally, not just as a coping mechanism, but as a lifestyle. And how do you fix that? Some would say education. However, education only works on a consenting individual.
You can’t teach someone who doesn’t want to be taught. Still, opting out completely comes at a cost.
Look at the scale of what’s happening: Escalating tensions between Iran and the United States, the ongoing fallout from the Russia - Ukraine war, a worsening global cost-of-living crisis, intensifying climate disasters, rising geopolitical instability and we’re only at the beginning of the year.
That’s before we even get to local realities, from organised crime to ATM bombings. Yes, it’s a lot. But you still owe it to yourself not to become an ‘ignorance is bliss’ person.
Maybe this is also a consequence of technological advancement. We have more access to information than ever before, but we engage with it less meaningfully. Even in education, this tension is showing. In Sweden, findings from the OECD’s PISA (2012–2022) showed that simply introducing more technology into classrooms did not improve outcomes, and in some cases had small negative effects. Access alone does not improve learning.
The same might be happening to us. We are surrounded by information, yet untouched by it. Exposed to everything yet grounded in nothing.
Why am I scared? Because being knowledgeable is one of the clearest signs of awareness and awareness shapes decisions, societies and futures.
Now imagine a world where most of the population is unaware and unbothered. You can miss me with that.
Are we becoming conditioned to accept utter ruin?
