Consider the following:
"I don't know what it is about hate and violence that people like so much. Whenever there is a fight at my school hundreds of kids run to see someone get beat up. I've seen kids climb trees to get a better view. No one tries to break it up until a teacher or security guard comes around. Who knows what makes people like violence. Maybe it's television, maybe it's the violence in the streets, maybe it's human nature." (Ali Carter)
What makes people like violence? Refer to what you may have gained from the Museum of Tolerance visit; use your own experience; make specific and insightful reference to your primary text.
(NOTE: Due to the computer issues at K/D, you will have until 5pm on Monday, June 1st to post your response to this blog.)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
From an article called "Some Things We Know About Genocide - 10 Years, 10 Lessons" by Gerald Canter (website at http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?id=20739):
"#7 - Most ordinary people will be bystanders. Acting righteously in a dangerous situation is more than we have the right to expect from most people.
Activists too easily scorn ordinary people who simply want to live their own lives. NOT being involved in the crises of others is the default position for most of the world, and nothing else can be expected. It is no doubt gratifying to look down on the majority as ignorant, indifferent or self-absorbed. It is more accurate to think of them as unaware, busy trying to cope with life's adversities, and having their own perfectly reasonable priorities. For most, coping with everyday life is hard enough. We should give praise to the minority who always emerge to join a campaign rather than being disappointed about and scornful of the majority who don't.
As for the righteous, the surprising thing is not how few there are but invariably how many. The gentile who saved Jews, the Hutu who saved Tutsi, the Congolese women who stand up to their rapists, the Zimbabwean human rights activists—these few show a courage unimaginable to most ordinary people. How many among us would risk "doing the right thing" if it meant risking imprisonment, excruciating torture, or even death? How many would give their lives to save another's? It helps nothing to have unreasonable expectations of others when most of us would not act any differently in the same circumstances."
Why does Caplan say most people are bystanders? How does Caplan's assertion (#7 in his list of things we know about genocide) follow David Shoem's ideas about our lack of knowledge of each other? Would the result of better knowledge of each other be fewer bystanders? Why or why not?
"#7 - Most ordinary people will be bystanders. Acting righteously in a dangerous situation is more than we have the right to expect from most people.
Activists too easily scorn ordinary people who simply want to live their own lives. NOT being involved in the crises of others is the default position for most of the world, and nothing else can be expected. It is no doubt gratifying to look down on the majority as ignorant, indifferent or self-absorbed. It is more accurate to think of them as unaware, busy trying to cope with life's adversities, and having their own perfectly reasonable priorities. For most, coping with everyday life is hard enough. We should give praise to the minority who always emerge to join a campaign rather than being disappointed about and scornful of the majority who don't.
As for the righteous, the surprising thing is not how few there are but invariably how many. The gentile who saved Jews, the Hutu who saved Tutsi, the Congolese women who stand up to their rapists, the Zimbabwean human rights activists—these few show a courage unimaginable to most ordinary people. How many among us would risk "doing the right thing" if it meant risking imprisonment, excruciating torture, or even death? How many would give their lives to save another's? It helps nothing to have unreasonable expectations of others when most of us would not act any differently in the same circumstances."
Why does Caplan say most people are bystanders? How does Caplan's assertion (#7 in his list of things we know about genocide) follow David Shoem's ideas about our lack of knowledge of each other? Would the result of better knowledge of each other be fewer bystanders? Why or why not?
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