Would you have opposed atrocities in the past? Do you oppose them today?
We look up to historical figures who opposed great atrocities of the past, especially helping people who couldn’t help themselves, which we consider on a different level than just helping ourselves, or at least I do. For example:
- Oskar Schindler
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Frederick Douglass
- Thomas Clarkson
- William Wilberforce
- William Lloyd Garrison
History shows that most people don’t help others in difficult times. For every one Oskar Schindler, maybe millions of Germans in the 1930s and 40s figured what they did wouldn’t matter and went with the flow.
For every one Thomas Clarkson, maybe millions of others kept buying sugar, rum, and other slave-produced good.
We are lowering Earth’s ability to sustain life. What are you doing?
Today we face billions of lives at risk in our lifetimes. Who are your role models? The people I named above didn’t change the world but they made a difference. At least they didn’t keep contributing to the problem. Our problem is bigger and more cruel than the ones they faced, and caused by people indulging in behaviors they could forego.
Are you interested in following in their footsteps?
Do they inspire you?
What do you think life would be like to be a hero to billions?
How do you think it felt for people to look the other way? Do you think they were proud of themselves?
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