Do Homo Sapiens have a As-if-I-care-gene ?

[mapuc]

The reason to why I asked is this.

A few month ago I saw on TV two program

I saw both program same day and it was a Friday.

The first one was a movie based on a true story-Title 37
It tells the story of 37 people was witness to a murder on a young lady in Queens 1963 and they didn't do anything to help her even though they knew or most likely knew what was going on.

After this movie I was surfing around my channels to see what's interesting. After about an hour later, I went through my guide and I saw Viasat History had a program called Project Nazi. I marked this

In this episode of Project Nazi, it was Crystal Night as main story.

Now here is what the speaker said-

"Even though the German was horrified at what had happened, they turned their backs on this and continued their daily activities as nothing had happened "

When he said those words(I can have forgot some simple words)
And I remembered the movie I saw some hours before I started to wonder

Do Homo Sapiens have a As-if-I-care-gene ?

Markus

[Reece]

I wouldn't have a clue and I don't really care!!

[Rockstar]

I'm sure Germans did not care for many reasons, shock, nationalism, fear, indifference, hate, economy, racism, military mentality, believing without question what the government and media told them. etc. etc. I suppose pretty much the same reasons people today don't care about the 1,000's of drones, missiles, and shells dropped in other countries.


But lets not forget their were many many other Germans seldom if ever heard of who gave up a lot including their lives to resist Hitler and his party fanboys.

[Eichhörnchen]

It was dangerous to show that you cared in Nazi Germany

[mapuc]

True the was many reason to why the Germans didn't care or pretend they didn't

And as Rockstar mentioned there was many who fought nazisme and they did it with their life.

The other story the one about 37 people in Queens 1937..Here there is absolutely no excuse.

Markus

[HW3]

The woman was Catherine “Kitty” Genovese on March 13, 1964.

[Skybird]

The first case, the murder case, is a textbook lecture in spocial psychology, the case of Kitty Genovese. At least it was a big thing at my times still, but I seem to recall that recently there have been risen some doubts on that the events took place the way they usually get told in the books.


It usually gets used to explain in social psychology courses that many people act on the belief that somebody else probbaly laready have cared, and so no own responsibility to care must be realised.


On the Germans, violence is a powerful and intimdiating threat. While there were Germans who indeed did not know what went on, there were also those who knew about the camps, and faded it out of their horizon, and then there are the many Germans who stood at the windows and turned away when the Gestapo took another Jewish family out their homes. The individual motives are numerous, no dohbt, but fear , intidmiation has probbaly often a lot to do with it. Fear for your family, your own life. Not everybody has the guts to confront the gestapo and most likely getting destroyed and his beloved ones with him. At leats not in that open situation. But lets nt forget: many, many Germans DID resist to the regime, they hid refugees at the risk for their own life, they helped Jews to escape. Thousnads and thousands did like this.



Today peope are quick to say "make a stand for something", and "make a mark". But they do not risk anything in this lingual gymnastics - more it is not. There lives are not at risk,not their health, not their wealth. its easy under such circumstances to raise the standards of your mora demands to others if you have not your won skin in the fire.



Genes have something to do with all this indeed: in the form of self-preservation. It takes guts and an upright character to put this at risk, your programming is deeply against it - but sometimes a few of us show that the code can be beaten indeed. But i do not fundamentally believe in the good of all men. I believe in a little good in some men.

[Jimbuna]

Apathy and self preservation are often also an ingredient.

[Platapus]

This is why if you are responding to an accident, don't just call out "someone call 911". No one will.

Point to someone and say to them "call 911" Either that person will do it or someone else will.

A lot of times, people, while meaning well, may not know what to do. It can be a form of paralysis. In emergencies, people are afraid of either doing something wrong or being criticized for doing something wrong so they freeze. This is especially common with laypeople. They are waiting to see of there is someone else with more experience/knowledge to "take action". So they wait.

It is kinda like no one wants to be the first on the dance floor, but as soon as someone goes, it spurs everyone else.

EMS can have the opposite issue in that we are trained to take action. I have seen junior EMTs push away senior people and in one case an ER doctor who happened to be on the scene but out of uniform. Their attitude is that since they are the "official EMT" on duty that everyone else is presumed to be a layperson. It does not help that, by nature, EMTs are a cocky bunch of bastages.

So in some cases, it is not a matter of not caring, but caring but not knowing what to do or wanting to take action too soon.

There are, however, people who truly don't care.

Usually we had police roll with us when going to traffic accidents. Often they were necessary for crowd control. Everyone loves seeing blood and a fellow human suffering.

One time we didn't and we had to manually carry a stretcher/gurney with the patient up an embankment to the squad. There were so many people standing around gawking that I, being the one in front, had to physically elbow people aside and not only did they not move, these gawkers started complaining to ME.

People suck at times.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Platapus

EMS can have the opposite issue in that we are trained to take action. I have seen junior EMTs push away senior people and in one case an ER doctor who happened to be on the scene but out of uniform. Their attitude is that since they are the "official EMT" on duty that everyone else is presumed to be a layperson. It does not help that, by nature, EMTs are a cocky bunch of bastages.

I think the reason for that may well not be that the EMT's are a " cocky bunch. " People in the medical profession have what i term as a " God Complex ." In that profession, to do your job effectively, you have to believe you can fix and cure everything including a rainy day. The medical person has to rely on the medical training they have received in school and training to save lives.

Most medical people in racing to save a life don't have the time or luxury to have manners or be nice. In saving a life, all other considerations are secondary.

It's like the quarterback in football. The quarterback has to feel he can beat anyone at anytime to win consistently. That kind of attitude can easily be misinterpreted as being cocky. I think it's pumping yourself up to do the job at hand. That kind of attitude has applications to just about every job. The best in their respective professions seem to all have that attitude.

You mentioned people suck as they love to see car crashes or human misery. I have seen that as well. I have never seen human life come as cheaply as it does in these times.

[Dowly]

Curiously, Kitty's story as originally told is not quite accurate:

While there was no question that the attack occurred, and that some neighbors ignored cries for help, the portrayal of 38 witnesses as fully aware and unresponsive was erroneous. The article grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived. None saw the attack in its entirety. Only a few had glimpsed parts of it, or recognized the cries for help. Many thought they had heard lovers or drunks quarreling. There were two attacks, not three. And afterward, two people did call the police. A 70-year-old woman ventured out and cradled the dying victim in her arms until they arrived. Ms. Genovese died on the way to a hospital.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder...iginal_reports



As for Germans, there's a book called The Ordinary Men which was an interesting read:
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-.../dp/0060995068