Often when faced with a dilemma, I say, “I don’t care”. Not because I don’t care about anything at all, but because I often identify what I think to be the right or decent course of action, and believe that the fallout, to whatever extent there will be any, is irrelevant on principle. In such instances, I am happy to say that I don’t care, because I really don’t. Debatably though, that’s generally not the right way to do it; but certainly it’s generally not the right way to express it.

To say “I don’t care” indicates incomplete thought or a complete lack of thought. The decision should be (and should be communicated as having been) made because ample thought HAS been given to the matter, and on balance, we will continue with our course of action only because it is the best one – even if it is not popular. We may (and should) do things that are not popular with others, as long as the scale tips “right”. This idea is not foreign because we often do things that are not popular even with ourselves or defy our own feelings, in favor of the longer term or more resounding good – we know this familiar concept as “will power”.

I am going to keep “I don’t care” in my back pocket for the same reason that I believe in “The Redemption Of Bad Words” – see 9-9-13 blog post. However, instead of saying “I don’t care” (as much), I hope to start saying “I have given it thought” or something that communicates the ideas and their implicit protest more clearly, maybe even more persuasively, certainly less dismissively. Instead of making it a cryptic statement of emotion, I can more consistently transform it into a statement about reason, and being reasonable.