@mickhock You don’t have to feel it. Nor do you have to understand it. It’s still there. But yes, anyone who thinks that what they do doesn’t affect anyone else, is missing a lot.
If you drive somewhere, the pollution from your car affects someone else’s air quality. Same with smoking. If you have an outhouse, it affects the quality of the drinking water of the person down the hill from you. If you go to the story and buy something, it affects not just the vendor, but all the employees of that vendor and the people who sell to that vendor and on and on. You can’t breathe without affecting someone else.
Some of these impacts are small, but combined with millions of other people’s actions, it adds up to something significant. If there is enough crime, it creates an atmosphere of fear. Often that fear is much bigger than the threat warrants. War is pretty obvious. It sucks people into the military that wouldn’t otherwise be there. It creates an atmosphere of anxiety. You may even know someone who knows someone who died in the war.
Some of these effects are indirect, but they are significant, and many people care because of that. Others care just because they are empathetic. Direct or indirect, it’s still personal. Of course, many people don’t perceive it that way. It’s one of the reasons we have so many problems and people are so willing to hurt each other. Sometimes these conflicts go on for thousands of years. The Middle East and surrounding areas are an example of this. And of course, what happens there also affects all the rest of us.