Can You Learn Anything From a Void?


            We have been taught our entire lives that the bystander who lets something bad happen is as guilty as the one committing the act.  It’s just called a sin of omission, instead of a sin of commission.  And that’s really what a bystander does—they omit.  They act as if the problem never happened.  They choose to oversee it.  So yes, I know what I’ve been taught.  Bystanders are guilty by association, so those in Macbeth who carry out the executions are technically guilty, as are the Germans (including both Victor Capesius and Konrad Jarausch) who understood some depth of the atrocities the Nazis were committing, and either helped them to happen or allowed them to happen.

            But I don’t think we can be so quick to judge the bystanders.  How are we to know that in the same situation, we would be any different?  I would say that one basic fault of most humans is our tendency to follow the crowd, no matter where the crowd is going.  It’s difficult to stand up and fight the current, especially in cases where things like our lives are at stake.  Like the article said, to stop something like the Holocaust, millions of people would have to be willing to be killed for what they believe in.  And we simply do not have millions of martyrs in our society.  Sitting in my room, completely safe from harm, it’s easy for me to say that I would be willing to stand up for what I believe in to the death.  Of course it’s easy.  It’s not actually happening.  But if you put me in one of those situations—well, that’s a lot different.  I’m not saying that it’s okay for bystanders to let things happen.  I still stand by the fact that bystanders are responsible to do what is difficult and stand up for the right thing.  But I would like to acknowledge the difficulty of the task we are asking bystanders to do at the same time.

             I also would like to question the idea that the bystanders/”accomplices” hold an equal amount of guilt as the person committing the crime.  I think the amount of guilt depends on how much a person knows and understands about the crime.  (For example, in the most extreme sense, a toddler is not really guilty of something he or she does because of a general ignorance of right and wrong.)  But if the person knows what is going on and chooses to go along with it anyway, they hold equal guilt.  So in my opinion, Victor Capesisus holds equal guilt.  His actions may not have caused as much large scale damage as Hitler, but the depth of the crime is similar.  The same holds for the murderers who kill Banquo for Macbeth.  They knew what they were doing, and are therefore responsible for their actions.