Indifference To The Suffering Of Others

Looked through the paper.
Makes you want to cry.
Nobody cares if the people
Live or die.
— Leonard Cohen 'In My Secret Life'

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
— WH Auden 'Musée Des Beaux Arts'

It's despair at the lack of feeling, of love, of reason in the world. It's despair that anyone can even contemplate the idea of dropping a bomb or ordering that it should be dropped. It's despair that so few of us care. It's despair that there's so much brutality and callousness in the world.
— John Fowles 'The Collector'

A most depressing thing occurs
But no-one minds and no-one stirs,
Which means you've ended up with two
Depressing things depressing you.
— Michæl Leunig 'The Two Depressing Things'

How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
— Kurt Vonnegut