Global Bystanders
How long can we bear to watch people suffer without us intervening?
Into the third week of Putin’s war against Ukraine, we see atrocity upon disaster upon foul murder unveiled in vivid videos on our screens. However much we sympathize with the brave Ukrainians and their heroic president Zelensky, the fear of getting caught in a maelstrom leading to World War Three is keeping us at bay. But how much longer will that fear restrain us? How much longer before our morality kicks in high gear and drives us to act — instead of sending money, weapons, and thoughts and prayers.
To explain our state of frozen apathy, psychology tells us the harrowing story of Kitty Genovese to explain the Bystander Effect. The 28-year-old was stabbed to death in the early morning of March 13, 1964, a few feet from her apartment building. She came home late from her work at a bar and parked near the entrance of her apartment building in an alley. She was followed home and on the doorsteps of her apartment building, she was stabbed in the back twice by 29-year-old Winston Moseley, who later said his only motive was “to kill a woman”. Moseley left the scene in his car. Genovese managed to crawl to the back of the building but was blocked from entering by a closed door. Ten minutes passed until Moseley came back and eventually found Genovese lying in a hallway, barely conscious. It’s almost unbearable to write this, but he stabbed her several times more before raping her. Knife wounds in Genovese’s hands showed that she tried to defend herself as much as she could. Moseley fled away again, not to return this time. Genovese was found by a neighbor who called the police. Kitty Genovese died on her way to the hospital. The most tragic part of what expired is that there were several witnesses to at least parts of the ordeal that Genovese was put through by Moseley (who was soon caught and died in jail in 2016). The first newspaper article mentioned 38 witnesses, but that number has later been disputed. The fact remains that at least some people witnessed the first attack visually and shouted at the attacker, but did not intervene and did not even call the police. Genovese screamed several times and was heard by people in the neighborhood, but none responded.
The response to this case was huge and resulted in the theory of the Bystander Effect, which has since been proven to be real by many experiments. The theory says that the more people are around when something tragic happens, the less likely someone is to intervene. This feels rather counterintuitive since you would probably think that you’d be safer in an environment where lots of people are around.
In case you’re wondering what to do if you get caught in a “bystander” situation, the best thing according to theory and experiments, is to physically point at bystanders and give them orders, like, “You! Call 911!”, “You! Come pressure this wound!”, et cetera. That will generally move people to act. No doubt this is the reason that president Zelensky regularly calls out heads of state and other powerful figures by name on social media, asking them to intervene directly, for instance by enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
More and more people are appealing for direct intervention. From the likes of Sean Penn to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to the head of Poland’s ruling party Jarosław Kaczynski, who said at the press conference in Kyiv after meeting President Zelensky together with the Prime Ministers of Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia, that an armed NATO peacekeeping mission is needed in Ukraine. Not sure how Putin would take that, but I’m pretty sure that it would put us in direct conflict with Russia.
By doing so we risk World War Three. We risk becoming a victim of a nuclear attack. All true. But risks are not facts. We could also — with intelligent and overwhelming military force — cut short Putin’s war. We see now for a couple of weeks already that the Russian army is not as mighty as we once thought. The Ukrainians are holding their ground in many places, far better than expected by any (military) expert. Kudos to the brave people of Ukraine, of course, but it also signals that the Russian military would be a lightweight opponent compared to NATO.
The risk we also need to consider is the risk of not being able to look ourselves in the eyes if we don’t intervene. What will we tell our children or grandchildren? That we let Putin have his way? That we let him take Ukraine to save our hides? That we let fellow humans — and animals — be blown to bits? That we let cities be leveled to the ground? That we let pregnant women and babies be bombarded? We did all that and stood there and watched? They will no doubt ask us if we were naïve enough to assume that Putin would stop at Ukrainian borders.
