Topic: No one in our class doubts that genocides will continue
to be perpetrated in our world. What will you do about this? Will you be a bystander
or will you take action?
When we look back on
events such as the Holocaust, it's hard not to wonder: why didn't anyone do
anything? This phenomenon of standing by and watching as an entire race is
practically exterminated is known as the bystander
effect. By definition, the bystander effect is a social psychological
phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer help to a victim. (What is the Bystander Effect?) Bystanders watch the ongoing, usually progressively increasing mistreatment of
a group of people yet have great potential power to influence events. However,
whether individuals, groups, or nations, they frequently remain passive. This
allows perpetrators to see their destructive actions as acceptable and even
right. As a result of their passivity in the face of others' suffering,
bystanders change: They come to accept the persecution and suffering of
victims, and some even join the perpetrators. Regarding small crimes and
actions such as stealing, many of us feel as if we do not offer help because
someone else is already helping them, or we do not want to get caught or
entangled into the crime. On a large scale, such as murder and rape, we feel it
is too dangerous for us to get involved and it is not our responsibility to
help, as we might not know or have any relation with the victim or aggressor. "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." -Elie Wiesel
What about standing by
watching genocide occur? With the increasingly advancing technology these days,
it is easy to witness either on television, YouTube, or any other
Internet-based site what is going on around the world. We see mass devastation
and destruction happening to fellow human beings, yet we go on with our lives
like its nothing. An outstanding example of this is from the movie "Hotel
Rwanda" is when Jack says "I think if people see this footage they'll
say 'Oh my God that's horrible', and then go on eating their dinners." Concerning
global context with nations and states refusing to intervene when witnessing
mass destruction in countries around them, powerful countries such as the
United States will often stand by and watch as other countries experience the
horrors of genocide. A primary example is the Holocaust, which resulted in the
killing of between 5 and 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany during World War
1. Other examples are the genocide of the Armenians in Turkey in 1915-1916, the
"auto genocide" in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, and the genocide
in Rwanda in 1994. (The Worst Genocides in the 20th Century) Many of the same influences are also present both in the
widespread uses of torture and in terrorist violence. In the United Nations
charter on genocide, the term denotes the extermination of racial, religious,
or ethnic groups.
So the real question is,
what would I do in the case of genocide?
Would I be just another bystander, or would I do something? Almost everyone who
receives this question would usually think “Yes. I would do something if
another genocide occurred.” What we fail to realize is that there is a genocide currently ongoing; the
genocide in Darfur (Six Things You Can Do to Stop Genocide). However, to contribute or help people in need while their
country is undergoing genocide does not mean hopping on a flight and leaving
everything you’ve ever known to lead protests in a foreign country. Even small
things like donating money or raising awareness in a community can help bring a
stop to these ongoing killings. (Preventing Genocide)
This history course has
made me become a more aware and conscious person about the terrors going on in
our world, not only in the past, but today as well. If more people can get educated and get involved with trying to prevent and stop today's genocide, we can truly make a difference.
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