There is a difference between not caring about anybody but yourself, and caring about people but placing your care for your family, neighbors, and fellow countrypersons above your care for masses of people you have never met and will never meet.
I also view differently my responsibility for people who are in terrible situations through no action of mine or my country's and people who are in terrible situations as a direct result of the way my country uses my tax dollars. I care both about the people in Belgrade who are being killed by bombs my taxes have helped purchase dropped by pilots my taxes have help train, and the people who are being forced out of their houses because of this bombing.
Do I care "deeply" (your word) about the Kosovo refugees? No. I care deeply about my family and certain friends. But one can have levels of caring. I care about those refugees, and have done my little bit to help, but no, I don't care to the degree of giving up the car I need to get to work so I can earn the money to give to the relief effort, and to care for those I do care deeply about.
If Barrett had said he had little concern for certain people, that would have been one thing. To say bluntly he doesn't care about anybody but himself (and to make "jokes" that prove him right in saying so) is a level of inhumanity I find akin to mental illness. In the words of the old song, "he is more to be pitied than censured." But I don't have any interest in wasting further time with him. |
