Apathy, of Course

“How do we get people in our community to care again?”, was the question I was asked yesterday during a presentation. I love this question because I have plenty to say on the subject, but it is also such a funny question because everyone already knows the answer. We, as people, know inherently how to care and how we go about caring for things and what makes us care. There is no secret sauce in the concept of caring. 

We spend our days caring about the things in our lives. There are certain things we care about more, certain things we care about less. There are things we care about more over time and things in our lives in which our level of concern wanes. We know intrinsically what caring feels like and how it operates. We spend our days immersed in the emotion of caring. We care about nearly everything we come in contact with to some degree, and we spend our life managing the things we care about. 

So why do we get so ignorant when we try and apply those same ideas to our communities? Maybe we assume people care differently? Possibly we are under the impression that concern is unique to each individual. 

People care about different things, of course, but the act of caring and the feeling of concern operates the same for all of us. We do not need to wonder what it takes to make other people care, we already know. We know because we have all experienced the feeling of caring about something more at one time and less at another time. Yes, you might care more about your community than someone else, but you might care about your care more than someone else.

People care about the things that are important to them, the things that affect their lives. If the place one lives currently does not have much bearing on their life, they are bound not to care. If you live in suburbia and have to drive to access everything in your life, your car is going to be a big deal to you. It is your lifeline. If you live in a traditional neighborhood and can walk to the coffee shop, you might not have a car or might not care that much about it, but your sidewalks will matter. You will care about their condition. 

People have every reason not to care about their community anymore. In fact, it makes sense. You people that care about your town are the weird ones. You are the oddballs. Everything about your town has declined, there is nearly nothing left to care about, yet still you do. Not everyone is like you. 

We can’t be surprised that people don’t care. Look at what we have done to our towns. The buildings that mattered are no longer being cared for. Those legacy buildings are now eyesores that make us sad. The shops that used to fill Main Street are gone and have been replaced by Dollar General. The town square, where people used to gather, sits empty and no longer provides people with a place to convene. All the things that people used to care about have been squandered. There is very little left to care about. 

We have to stop asking why people don’t care and just accept the fact that there isn’t much left to care about. It isn’t a surprise, it isn’t a mystery. It is the logical response to a series of decisions that have been made over the years. Nearly every city has neglected what matters and invested in things that don’t. 

The person that loves their car, cares for their car. They maintain it, they wash it, they take pride in it. If they have an accident, they will get it repaired, so they still enjoy it. But let’s say they didn’t repair it. Let’s say its all banged up, would they still wash it? Would they still be proud of it? 

Your city is the same way. It’s all banged up, there is nothing to be that proud of, so people aren’t likely to care for it. 

So how do we get someone to car about their city again? We have to fix it up. Simple. This isn’t a chicken or egg proposition either. We can’t hope that people will suddenly start caring, and then there will be more will to fix up the problems. Nope. The fixing has to start first. It is through the repair, that we make people care. 

People care about things that are nice, things that make them feel good about themselves. When we improve something, even incrementally, it begins to feel nicer, which in turn, makes us care more. You don’t have to renovate your whole house to be a bit more proud of it. You don’t have to run a marathon to be proud of yourself, you simply have to improve, to any degree. It is the act of improvement that increases our sense of pride. 

So any and every improvement to your block or downtown, will make people care more. All improvements matter, all improvements help foster more care and concern. 

So when asked the question, how do get people to care more about our community again, the answer is easy. Improve it. Stop waiting for people to care more, it is not realistic, give them a reason to care. Again, remember, you are the weird one for caring as much as you do. You can’t expect everyone to care as much as you do, you have to give them a reason. Provide them with that reason. 

If you give people a reason to care, they will. They will care more and with every improvement, that level of concern will grow. So stop asking how we get people to care, because you already know. Get to work giving people something to care about.