Abstract:
The twentieth century is often said to have been the
bloodiest century in recorded history. In addition
to its wars, it witnessed many grave and widespread
human rights abuses. But what stands out in historical
accounts of those abuses, perhaps even more than
the cruelty of their perpetration, is the inaction of bystanders.
Why do people and their governments repeatedly
fail to react to genocide and other mass-scale
human rights violations?
There is no simple answer to this question. It is
not because people are insensitive to the suffering of
their fellow human beings-witness the extraordinary
efforts an individual will expend to rescue a person in
distress. It is not because people only care about identifiable
victims of similar skin color who live nearby:
witness the outpouring of aid from the north to the
victims of the December 2004 tsunami in Southeast
Asia. Nor can the blame be apportioned entirely
to political leaders. Although President George W.
Bush was unresponsive to the murder of hundreds of
thousands of people in Darfur, it was his predecessor,
President Bill Clinton, who ignored the genocide in
Rwanda, and President Franldin D. Roosevelt who for
too long did little to stop the Holocaust. The American
example of inaction has been largely repeated in
other countries as well. Behind every leader who ignored
mass murder were millions of citizens whose
indifference allowed the inaction to pass.