“Scientists talk about dark matter, the invisible, mysterious substance that occupies the space between stars. Dark matter makes up 99.99 percent of the universe, and they don't know what it is. Well I do. It's apathy. That's the truth of it; pile together everything we know and care about in the universe and it will still be nothing more than a tiny speck in the middle of a vast black ocean of Who Cares".
During the Vietnam war there were protests all over the country protesting our participation in what many felt was an unjust war. Machlokes. Some felt it was a just war. Some were vehemently opposed. There are still many vetarens who never recovered physically and emotionally [go to the corner of 72nd and Amsterdam next to the Papaya-Hot Dog place on the UWS and you can meet some of them and give them a few dollars]. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War.
Every day approximately 123 Americans kill themselves. That comes out to close to 45,000 people a year. That is an astounding statistic [especially when you consider what emotionally healthy people will do to stay alive even when suffering from painful physical illness]. So in a year and change more people kill themselves than all of the soldiers killed in the Vietnam war combined. If we care about the value of life - why isn't this public emergency number ONE??!! EVERYONE agrees that this is a tragedy. Actually hundreds of thousands of tragedies a year [when you figure in the suffering of all of the relatives and friends of the suicides]. Why isn't EVERYONE talking about ways to end this epidemic?
TENS OF THOUSANDS MORE are dying from drug and alcohol related deaths. Not to mention those whose lives are like death because of their addictions.
But life for the rest of us goes on. People watch their movies on Netflix, go to their ball games, watch either CNN or Fox depending on what version of the news they want, the never ending pursuit of wealth continues, and so on and so forth.
And Rome burned while Nero fiddled.
