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Philosophy & Racism
When Good People Do Nothing
Linking Stoicism to Racism
Stoicism’s Take On Doing Nothing
“History abounds with evidence that humanity is capable of doing evil, not only actively but passively.
In some of our most shameful moments — from slavery to the Holocaust to segregation to the murder of Kitty Genovese — guilt wasn’t limited to perpetrators but to ordinary citizens who, for a multitude of reasons, declined to get involved.
It’s that old line: all evils needs to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
It’s not enough to just not do evil. You must also be a force for good in the world, as best you can.” — The Daily Stoic p. 223
Often, when I see someone pull out their phone to record something evil taking place instead of doing something to prevent it, I feel a bit irritated.
In the case of George Floyd, I keep wondering to myself, why didn’t the pedestrians and primarily the police officers (other than Derek Michael Chauvin) watching the murder of George Floyd not do anything.
How does it feel to watch one of your peers murder someone with their bare hands, knowing you had the potential…
