When Good People Do Nothing

I received an email this morning that spoke about how dangerous a particular movement is becoming due to the few problem people within its ranks and they are foisting their desires on the peace loving majority. Comparisons were drawn to events in history where any number of movements were started and which then snowballed when fanatic elements took hold, for example, in Nazi Germany. I am quite sure that most German people during Nazi Germany were very peace loving and would never have wanted to hurt another person, yet how is it that so many years ago the German nation was led by leaders who began to kill other people in what is now called the holocaust and yet hardly anyone said a word in protest? Of course, how could they protest, one might ask, for if they protested they would be killed themselves. Isn't this the process that happens on an individual level when someone is bullied? The only way that the bullies succeed is by careful selection of a weaker target. When the target speaks out, pleas for help fall on deaf ears as the people around who might help, withdraw. They withdraw to keep the peace and to ensure they are not drawn into a complex web of politics, which might make themselves a target too. In so doing, the target is mobbed by people who agree with these unfair actions as well as by people who disagree yet who keep silent. Yet often the people who keep silent are the majority and could easily form an opposing voice against the bully, or against fanatics as happened in Nazi Germany. On the other hand, perhaps in both the case of bullying and fanaticism, including genocide, a part of the silent peaceful majority agrees that the target deserves the treatment they are receiving? It is a sobering thought, as all of us do not know when we might become part of the next target group ourselves. All targeting and discrimination is wrong. Speak out if you see injustice happening, before it is deeply entrenched and accepted behaviour. Good can overcome evil if we never allow evil to flourish. Target unjust behaviour, yet accept all people.

Links to related blog articles:
When Bystanders Look On (contains a high level comparison between bullying and genocide)
The Worrying Steps in the Slippery Slope Towards Genocide