But it doesn't seem to be. And that scares me.. For me, because I may do the same and because I, with diabetes, may one day be in desperate need for assistance (and if a young, innocent child is unworthy, how am I?) and for others, because we just don't seem to care.
Watch the video. If it weren't for it, I may believe it to be untrue. It still may be... But to believe so is ignorant. This is the world. What is wrong with us?
2 comments:
Yes, I saw that. It's the "Kitty Genovese Syndrome," which was discovered and named long before you were born. It arises in densely-populated urban areas, when in an effort to carve out a bubble of privacy and anonymity amid close-packed surroundings, people assume that "someone else will do something, because I don't want to get involved."
It's another example of "the banality of evil," really. Evil is allowed to exist because everyone around it is too apathetic to do anything about it.
Also consider that China doesn't have any Good Samaritan laws, so someone that does provide assistance could be (and often are) held legally and financially responsible for that person.
A couple years back Peng Yu helped an elderly woman and took her to a hospital after she fell. A court later found him responsible for part of her medical expenses.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/11/china-senior-sues-would-be-samaritan/
The most chilling foreshadowing from this article, which was from 2007 is "lamenting what impact this immensely-discussed incident would have for society when future roadside or traffic injuries occur. Would you risk lending a hand?"
I suppose none of those bystanders wanted to risk lending a hand.
When performing good deeds is punished in society, it's a deterrence to public morality. It certainly makes low-income citizens hesitant to burden their (already poor) families with the expensive medical/legal charges of a stranger.
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