Dying slowly, under the eyes of everyone and in one of the busiest streets in the world without anyone doing anything to help us is possible. It was what happened to the photographer René Robert. He fell on rue Turbigo, in the center of Paris, and was unable to get up.
Time passed. Passers-by avoided him. Others pretended that he was not there, lying on the ground. Others thought he was drunk. Others didn’t even notice him. However, the night advanced and the cold with it. Three hours after the fall, people were still coming and going from bars in one of the liveliest areas of the city, but nobody paid attention. Nobody stopped.
Finally, at 6:30 in the morning, the firefighters arrived, responding to the call of a homeless man, who had worried about the old man’s condition. It was too late. After nine hours lying in the street without receiving help, Robert died of hypothermia – or rather of social indifference, of everyone’s indolence.
That wanderer may not have had a home, but he had a heart firmly fixed in his chest, as the philosopher Damien Le Guay wrote. He was someone who did not look with disdain, but who knew how to see. Instead, the rest of the passers-by just did what they do every day: stare at their cell phones, rush somewhere and look away to alienate themselves from the human drama that unfolds around them.
In psychology, that has a name: bystander effect. In 1964, a woman was killed while 38 people witnessed the attack but did nothing to stop it. The news shocked psychologists J. Darley and B. Latané so much that conducted an experiment in which a person pretended to have an epileptic attack. They found that when groups were formed, only 31% of people offered their aid, the rest remained impassive assuming that the others would take care of it.
Today, that number is likely to be even lower and virtually zero when it comes to helping the people who are “spit out” by society, the marginalized, the “nobodies”. After all, poverty is not looked at in the eyes, it is ignored. Because, deep down, we are scared by the reflection that returns us. It scares us thinking that that person could be us. It scares us to see that we live in a society that allows it. That’s why we prefer not to think. Do not look. To exorcise those unconscious fears. And so, without realizing it, we settle into indifference. It is easier.
That January 20 it was the turn of a renowned photographer, but every year 600 people die on the streets of France, a reality that is repeated in many cities around the world. We live in a society in which it seems that solidarity is something for everyone, but not for each one of us. Individualism advances while coexistence goes back. Empathy gives way to selfishness. Humanity dehumanizes itself while extolling empty speeches full of bombastic words that refer to distant concepts.
However, the goal is not to point the finger of blame at all those who did nothing. It is too easy to criticize after the fact and believe to be superior. Nor is the objective to ask ourselves what we would have done. Because we don’t know. We can’t even know. Perhaps we would have passed by without doing nothing. Or maybe not. Now, it doesn’t matter.
What really matters is asking ourselves what we are going to do from this moment on. Is it really that hard for us to stop for a second to ask someone if he’s okay? Is it really so hard for us to call emergencies when we spend all day sending useless messages with our smartphone? An act of solidarity and empathy costs little, but it is worth a lot.
All of us, our grandparents, our parents or even ourselves, could have been that old photographer dying of cold in the middle of the street. And in that case, we would have liked someone to stop for helping us.
Source:
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; 8: 377-383.
