Inspired by the thread about caring about the environment, this is a thread about something I have been thinking about since the middle of the last decade. How far can we actually be compassionate and caring about people we don't know at all and only read about?
I feel that ordinary people have been fed two opposing messages for a long time now: a very individualistic 'you can do anything you want to, you are your only limitation' fed to us by the commercialisation of education and also by social media, and the 'be kind above all else and you are responsible for everyone else' which is also propogated by social media. I saw a LOT of the latter during the pandemic, when people were hounded for their lack of compliance with a draconian and increasingly nonsensical set of arbitrary rules. From having been very concerned about Covid, I became more and more blase and keen for normal life to resume.
I have come to the conclusion that it is more effective to focus on the people closest to oneself, their wellbeing and happiness, than to spread yourself thin worrying about the whole world. I feel that I am a nicer and happier person since I stopped obsessing about social justice, about politics, about the environment, and just focussed on my own friends, job, and interests. Can anyone else identify with this?
YABU. The world is a village, and we should care equally about everyone.
YANBU. Live your life, be kind but not at your own expense.