How did we come to this ?

My work machine is giving me trouble. Hopefully I can post this.

Sorry if I come off mean. My intent was to explain that this does happen. I have seen good people do it. I would have done it had I not known about it once. I have traveled many roads probably some you haven't. Doesn't make me better or worse than you. You haven't traveled in the shoes of those kids. They were wrong but to change future behavior we have to figure out why. What I stated is a part of it, however small.

It may be human nature for most to stand in stunned disbelief, fear, or to run with the mob, but not all.

If I don't understand the behavior, it's because it's not in my nature.

As unpalatable as this may be, Can_I_Just_be_Jo is correct when saying that this is pure human nature and nothing has changed in that respect since the beginning of time.

There have actually been studies done about this sort of a thing, and those studies invariably produce the same results - the larger the crowd of peole watching someone being attacked, the less likely anyone will move a single finger to help. Basically the crowd psychology becomes (1) self preservation of I don't want to get caught up in this and (2) looking at others not doing anything, an assumption that someone else has already done something about this as in calling for help or police or whatever. Crowd mentally is triggered and personal responsibility is suppressed.

On the other hand, if you only have one or two witnesses, the chances of them actually stepping in are huge. There is no mob mentallity going on and the mind reacts by looking around and realizing that they are personally responsible for action/prevention - there is nobody else. In other words personal responsibility gets triggered and therefore action gets triggered as well.

Thanks Gals. You sure know how to flatter a guy.

I know from personal experience as well (although not as dramatic) that most people freeze up in unusual (to use a generalized term) situations. One time at PT one of the kids had some sort of medical attack and collapsed, convulsing, to the ground after doing one max set of pull-ups (well after, he was just standing there). Myself and one other guy there immediately rushed in and I told a nearby guy to call 911.

I would like to say it's a "will to act" but I don't know if that's what it was. The other guy and myself were both leading the PT session as senior members and thus had a "leadership" position. Perhaps being responsible made me move to action more quickly. The other thing is that I've been trained by the military to respond to medical situations in a limited capacity. When you have training to act your body often responds that way when under stress. My "You, call 911" was almost exactly the same as "You, call the corpsman" I've been trained to do. And the reason you pick a specific person is because if you say "Somebody call !" everyone will stand around waiting for someone else to do it. You have to be specific.

Parties can get pretty crazy. I don't know the situation they were in but I've been at parties where people being naked or having sex in the middle of everyone isn't that uncommon. Alcohol clouds the judgment and if you don't know the situation your first instinct is not to interfere.

I'm not saying their behavior was in any way "normal." I happen to make sure my friends are the kind of people who would stop such behavior as it happened (which unfortunately we've had to do). But I don't know if it's entirely a matter of morality.

Either way I seriously doubt this is something we "got to the point of." This idea that the past had "better morals" where this sort of thing didn't happen is frankly an illusion. We just didn't have as much media coverage of such things. It was less known. I won't get into the media violence fetish.

In my opinion the trick is not to try and fix the world. Fix yourselves and those around you. Make a difference in your environment and be the example. Trying to do too much is sometimes worse than doing nothing at all. I suppose those claims need some explanation and will get misinterpreted but I'll deal with that later =).

Jacquesne

God folks clearly you don't understand psychology. It is actually human nature to look to others for guidence in a situation. If no one is reacting your mind assumes there is nothing to react to. It is sad but true. Chances are in the same situation you would react the same way. Doesn't make you a bad person, just human.