Caring About Others

The meme here made me smile, but it brings up an interesting point.  One of the few things I remember about (20th Century German existentialist philosopher Martin) Heidegger is his theory that part of the human condition is “Sorge,” the German word for “care.”  People care.

But care is not an absolute.  No one cares about everything and everyone cares about something.

Care is also a sociological thing.  Nazis don’t care about blacks and Jews, Trump supporters don’t care about the well-being of immigrant children, and people like the Koch brothers don’t care about anyone or anything but themselves.

Care ebbs and flows.  Americans care more about politics now than anytime in my memory.

It’s also worth mentioning that not caring isn’t always a moral thing; in some cases, it’s purely cultural.  Vietnamese eat dogs.  At the end of their elders’ lives, Eskimos banish them to die on ice floes.

Care lies at the core of good interaction between people.  As Emily Post put it, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.

Note the uproar about the jacket Melania Trump wore on her recent surprise visit to Texas, ostensibly to show her level of concern for the above-mentioned immigrant children.  Perhaps, “I don’t really care. Do u?” communicated the wrong message.

There was an exhortation delivered on posters in the anti-war days of the 1960s: “Give a damn.”  Good advice.