Why do we care?

A lot of times in life, you say "I don't care." or "Whatever." or something to that effect. What I want to know is why do we care about anything? About school, grades, global warming, food, inappropriate activities involving 2 people (usually) that society deems unfit before marriage, puppies, and pretty much everything else. It's a pretty big question, so feel free to dismantle it.

This is just an idea, but I think that the reason that we choose to be a part of society is that we want to have control over our surroundings. We want to keep the world around us as non-threatening as possible and deep down, a part of us realizes that our best chance of having control is to fulfill society's demands: going to school, getting good grades, going to college, getting a job, not committing any felonies. I mean, one of the simplest ways to gain control over your surroundings is with money; am I right? And you sure as hell don't have control if you're in jail. I think that as humans, we are terrified of the idea of having no control over our surroundings because part of what makes us human is our tendency to manipulate our environment to suit us, rather than adapting to suit our environment. And the feeling of having no power, having your surroundings control you, drives people to drastic measures. An example of this would be gang violence. Those who feel powerless will do anything to take some of it. This could also apply to suicide. If someone feels like their surroundings are controlling them and they are unable to adapt, they might feel like their only option is to give up. This is getting kind of off-topic, but it's just a stream-of-consciousness type thing.

stream-of-conciousness works well here

yeah, wanting to control things is a great incentive for giving a damn about them, power can be addicting

what do you think about people who like losing control though? The ones who are daredevils and use drugs?

I don't think that people use drugs as a way of gaining control. I think that people who use drugs do it so they can temporarily forget about their lack of control.

Well, Ira, let's take House as a counterexample. He is an obvious drug addict, but he's in more control when he has drugs than when he does not have drugs.

Also, some drug users have control when they take drugs. I mean, it's not like every drug taker overdoes. Maybe it's like a casual thing that they do, like smoking at a grave because the person who died liked it when the person smoked.

Yeah, but it would be kind of counterintuitive to take drugs just for the purpose of gaining control.

It seems pretty counterintuitive to take drugs too though
"I want to do this even though I know I shouldn't!"

Yeah, that pretty much says it.

i guess that does get into the idea of "should" though

like, we know we should care about things because people are always telling you you're supposed to care and have an opinion, like that's why english teachers assign essays, right?

I care about things because they either make me happier or will lead to making me happier later on. For example: School. I care about getting an education because it will allow me to get a better job, make more money and live comfortably which will make me happier than say if I flunked out of school, lived on the streets and had to beg for money to obtain enough food/stuff to survive.