In the society nowadays, most people tend to see things in relation to
their own interests. People don』t think for one another that much.
Everyone just wants to mind his own business, so who cares about
others? Consideration and sympathy are what we lack in our society.
By looking at how people treat their elders, we can see what cruelty
exists among us. The old people we see today, crawling on the floor or
begging for food, they are somebody』s parent or relative. Still, they
have no one to take care of them. News about Lonely old men left in
their houses to die and rot for weeks before anyone found out comes in
every other day. It is true cruelty to see such things and not feel
anything. Yet People seem to be numb nowadays. Most people think: 「as
long as it』s not me, why should I worry?」 But some day in the future
when we ourselves are old, we might turn out just like those lonely old
men.
Our society obviously isn』t the only one that
lacks sympathy. In the story 「The Lottery,」 we also see how the
cold-blooded village people stoned one of their people to death without
shedding one tear. What』s worse, there wasn』t even a single person who
felt sorry for the woman. They all thought it was just an event that
took place once a year; there was no big deal about it. Even when the
woman was crying for help, no one felt the slightest sympathy towards
her. It seems that it never occurred to the villagers that they all
have the same chances as the woman. After all, they might be stoned
next year.
We can』t say that our society didn』t teach us to
be considerate. After all, we did learn about respecting our elders in
our elementary school textbook. But I don』t think any of us really paid
any attention to it. So in order to bring sympathy and consideration
back to our society, we must set good examples ourselves. We have the
responsibility to show our children the right way to treat people. Our
influence might be considered weak, but little by little, things will
change. If we do our share, the long lost morality of ours society will
find its own way back.