indifference reduces the other to an abstraction
Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims? One of the most profound things about Elie Wiesel's speech is that he asks a lot of questionsand doesn't provide any solutions. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war? Indifference has the power to make entire populations "less than," which is what happened to him and millions of others during the Holocaust. It doesn't relieve us of our duties or obligations, but it does make them harder to fulfill if we don't take care of ourselves first. Elie Wiesel claps as President Barack Obama speaks at the Holocaust Museum in 2012 in Washington. White indifference to police brutality is why so many Black men continue to die like Floyd. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. Millions of innocent people died in concentration camps throughout Europe, but genocides were occurring in Rwanda and Kosovo. Elie Wiesel Defines Indifference | Preaching Today The Perils of Indifference - LinkedIn But this time, the world was not silent. Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals? It is far simpler to turn away from victims. America was built by folks searching for religious freedom, and Wiesel doesn't understand how such a place could turn its back on 1,000 people looking for that same freedomespecially when they'd heard whispers about the kinds of horrors happening in the Nazi-controlled parts of Europe.