Almost certainly not. I suspect the vast majority of people are like you, and spend little time dwelling on the various plights of far-away people.
I hate to add to the OP’s woes, but on a much smaller scale, microbes are getting stronger, bolder and more resistant to existing antibiotics. There are only one or two pharma companies who are even sorta-kinda working on new ones because its not as profitable as drugs that are taken chronically. Flu viruses are always mutating. If one decides to take up where Spanish flu left off, hundreds of millions could die. Hell, we can’t even effectively contain MRSA.
I think from the cradle my kids could compare, and with invisible micrometers and scales they learned to evaluate every single morsel of anything they received. And the cries were heard throughout the world, “It’s not FAIIIIIRRRRRR!”
I tried, I tried my very best, to see that the world as Mom controlled it, was given equally.
Finally, exhausted, I simply said, “Life isn’t fair. Get over it.”
That is probably one of the most important things I could teach my children. I have to smile as my daughter explains to HER children, “Life isn’t fair. Get over it.”
You have two choices. You can sit and look at the unfairness of Life, and bitch and moan and spend all of your time slathering yourself in the pain and misery of it all. Watch every single news broadcast, search the internet, even read history so you can dwell within the unfairness and inequity which has been the lot of humankind since we crawled out of the primordial ooze.
If that is your choice, you’ll probably make yourself physically ill with ulcers, migraines, and all sorts of autoimmune diseases. You’ll be as depressed as Hell.
And the pain and misery and inequity will go on existing, and your suffering will have accomplished…nothing.
Or, you could embrace a philosophy my own mother tried to impress upon me at an early age. She told me I needed to learn to laugh at Life. Because no matter what, Life is indeed unfair, and it almost rejoices in kicking everybody in the head with regularity. If you look for the funny, for the humor, for the sheer ridiculousness of the crap that is dished out to you, you will be better off.
Seriously, if you know that crap is going to be raining on you regularly, find something funny about it. It’s really so much better to laugh than to cry!
~VOW
You don’t. Suffering is baked into the cake. It is built into biology since sadly biology is a zero sum game in many ways. For one to win, another must lose. And losing means suffering.
Lots of people just tune it out.
For me I hope for a technological singularity to escape this brutal cycle.
I embrace The Drink.
I’m generally an optimistic person. However this year has been a struggle at times. I do not ever blame the universe or fairies in sky for my predicament. It’s just how it is. I try to find humor in all things and the good in people where I can. Not always easy.
I reconcile the world by saying: it could always be worse.
Apathy. I’ve resigned myself that this world is fucked.
Social media being a big contributing factor to the fall of democracy.
We’re not going to fix global warming.
Good news is, this world will manage to stay together until I die of old age. So there’s that.
One of the consequences is an acute sense of history functioning as a catalyst within social dynamics where competing ideological narratives coagulate the masses into sworn battalions determined to safeguard their vital resources.
I think that too, but it’s less comforting because I have spawned.
I reconcile the world by ignoring a lot of it. I’m aware of what’s going on, keep abreast of the news, current events, scientific breakthroughs and warnings and whatnot…but I have my own life to live. Global awareness is a wonderful thing, but at the end of the day, just as nobody else is responsible for you, you are not responsible for anyone else (save those you brought into this world and are dependent upon you), beyond what you choose. As for me, I focus on my wife, my cats, my parents, and my patients. Unless the world catches fire, I’m not going to spend very much energy worrying about it what doesn’t affect me or those I love.
But then, I’m also fortunate in that I don’t have anxiety or depression. If you have either or both of those, then please, for your own sake and the sake of those who love you, seek help with them.