Why Bystanders Need Power

People throughout history have become cruel when they are given power. The Nazis during the Holocaust, slave-masters, and even teachers at schools that are given power become absorbed in it, which makes them cruel. Being in charge makes people feel good, and will do anything to keep feeling good. It is human nature to become cruel for power.

There have been several moments in history that display the cruelty humankind is capable of; one of those historical events is the Nanking Massacre of 1937, also known as the Rape of Nanking. The Nanking Massacre is a gruesome invasion that took place over a period of six weeks in city of China, Nanking, where Japanese Army forces slaughtered thousands upon thousand of Chinese civilians and raped over 20,000 women. This chaos led to some trivial moments of almost Chinese extinction in this region, where the Chinese were left helpless; however, there were some Westerners who stayed during this duration to protect the defenseless as much as humanly possible, such as Minnie Vautrin, John Rabe, John Magee, and George Fitch. Maybe through all this

I agree with Miles Lehrman when he said that “A perpetrator is not the most dangerous enemy” because they're not worse than the perpetrator who watched everything that happened and didn't say anything it didn't want nothing to do with what was going on. In my own opinion, I feel as that the person that watched what happened which is the perpetrator is bad as the bystander because they could do the same thing the bystander do.

While it may seem incomprehensible to us now, as it certainly is to me, the extent to which individuals are capable and willing to commit unspeakable acts against their fellow human beings can be understood by the enormous influence of authority and their misuse of human traits.

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" (King, n.d.). King's (n.d.) statement demonstrates the major internal impact bystanders can have on others. As a matter of fact, most people do not think about the possible long-term effects of not standing up for someone or something. Although it may not seem like a big deal to one person, it could be life changing to another. Many just consider a bystander to be someone who is present at an incident and doesn't take action, but there is actually much more to it. The term 'bystander' can be defined as someone who is present during corruption, does not speak up, and seems not to care about others.

The human propensity for violence and revenge captivate, yet baffle audiences of literature. This animalistic trait interwoven with human behavior is an ancient one and has survived the test of time, despite our societal developments; wherein the need for survival and constant violence has sharply declined. However, this intricacy of human nature remains and with it suffering brought on by a never ending cycle violence that is only perpetuated by more violence. Not only that, but what we call “evil” also continues to intrigue audiences and social scientists alike. This inescapable drawback of human nature plays a large role in violence in human behavior, therefore to best analyze why human behavior is prone to violence, evil must also be touched

In this world of justice, compassion, kindness, and love, there is also hatred and injustice and terror and war. Those who live in this world have an impact on it as well as everyone else living here. In order to keep this world one, those living here have to be peaceful. Sometimes knowing that others are trying to be peaceful can convince them to take advantage of innocent people. ISIS and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe illustrate the cyclical nature of the impact that power has on people and the manipulative effects on a society.

An exemplification of this is; in 2012 alone some 437 thousand people were murdered, and nearly one-third of the 5.8 million deaths in 2004 were caused by acts of violence Murders of that great of numbers are unjustifiable and violence like that is unacceptable. It completely proves that people are bad at heart and the reason some people may act good is because there is repercussions by by nature they crave being bad. With no reason to kill, it is because deep down humans are savages and some are held in the restraints of society.

This concept has also fuelled many wars and conflicts in history, and even in the present day. It makes groups believe that they are fighting a just cause against an ‘evil’ enemy and that once the ‘evil’ people have been killed, peace and goodness will reign supreme. Human nature is infinitely more complex than this. In human beings, ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are fluid. People can be a combination of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ qualities. Some people who behave cruelly and brutally can be rehabilitated and eventually display ‘good’ qualities such as empathy and kindness. And rather than being intrinsic, most cruel or brutal behaviour is due to environmental factors, such as an abusive childhood, or ‘social learning’ from a family or peers. The extremes of Gandhi and Hitler on the spectrum of human behaviour. Sometimes we may behave badly, when egocentric impulses cause us to put our needs before the welfare of others. Sometimes we behave in a saintly fashion, when empathy and compassion impel us to put the needs of others before our own, resulting in altruism and kindness. This battle of 'Good' and 'Evil', it destroys so

So why do people treat others horribly? One possible answer is power. When some people are in power that might get to their head. So many people in power have treated other human beings worse than they would treat an animal. One example is Hitler, when he gained power he stated the Holocaust. Another example is how the leaders of North Korea are now.

From my perspective, I agree with Malala “terror can make people cruel” since, in the way of terror, people may no longer care about others’ life and rights by taking evil actions, as they only pursue their goals. Historically, such conditions emerged during the World War 2. For instance, the Nazi Party at that time contended discrimination towards the Jews, killing them in the gas chambers brutally without any sympathy. Moreover, also during this period, Japanese invaded China, killing hundreds of thousands of Chinese without any reasons, while their behaviors massively violated Chinese rights for life and security. In a nutshell, both of the examples can demonstrate my thoughts that during the particular period, people lost their values of

Trusting other and showing weakness to others can get oneself killed easily. Furthermore, why is there so much violence in one innocent mind of an individual from the selfishness of other people.

People are cruel for many reasons because of hatred, human nature, and to get revenge. The holocaust is an example of hatred is when the Nazi killed many Jewish, Romany, and Slavic people. The way people grow up could affect the way people feel about things. Sometimes people who grow up in a bad environment or family usually think some bad stuff is okay. The Sandy Hook shooting is an example of killing out of revenge because, the shooter probably got bullied and wanted to get revenge. Also in the Rwandan genocide the Hutus wanted revenge.

There are certain issues in society that have always bothered me, but in a bystander position, where I wouldn’t say anything because I thought to myself that I should not get involved with someone else’s problems or I felt that I wasn’t old enough to get enough or because I was just strictly too scared to get

Did you know that 1 in 5 students in the U.S. is either bullied or is a bully? However, bystanders are even guiltier than bullies! In the U.S. bystanders are much worse than bullies because they either join in, don’t stop it, or ignore it like nothing is happening!