apathy's fashionable

hi period. i think you're quite right about not caring being a front for incompetency. apathy functions as a kind of escape - like coz my chinese is really bad, so i pretend that i don't care about not being able to carry out a conversation in chinese.

but maybe more than being a "front for incompetency", apathy IS becoming fashionable. in mainstream society, you're expected to care. to be passionate about things. positive, constructive, desirable things like schoolwork or chinese language. it's considered a desirable trait. to be apathetic is a sign of rebellion - "i don't care about mugging, so i go around saying 'hao lian lah mugger lah' in a nasal voice". and rebellion is always popular, especially rebellion against mainstream society.

apathy towards the pillars of mainstream society has become a badge of our subculture's rebellion. and that's perhaps the most dangerous of all traits. subcultures always become cultures: witness jazz, graffiti, and tea (the custom, not the drink). subcultures have always arisen [arose?] because their members were passionate about something: expression, food, the environment... but our subculture is passionate about apathy. how crappy is that.

please tell me that i'm wrong. that we haven't created a culture of apathy. that we don't not know and not care. that we don't actually like to fail.

please tell me that i'm wrong.