Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,

 Fyodor Dostoevsky writes about the plague of indifference in his novel  The Brothers Karamazov . Dostoevsky makes the argument that indifference is  worse  than outright malice because it makes the victim feel humiliated and insignificant. 
 Auden disagrees here – he says that indifference is the least of man’s concerns. Considering his homosexuality, he probably would have preferred indifference to the cruel treatment homosexuals receive.
The More Loving One