Cowardice Vs Indifference

I was looking through my LA paper just a few days ago, happy that for once I did well in a Literature test. I focused on Q2 of the paper, which asked about the forms of "courage" displayed in the Novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In a minute of mischief, I imagined myself as Atticus Finch and pondered over how I would explain what courage was to Scout Finch. I had always like to form personal philosophies in my head and echo them to my classmates. Meaningless words floated in the my head as I attempted to piece together a surprising complicated puzzle. Gosh, Philosophers do have it hard.

After a while, it finally clicked. The sentence reverberated in my head a few times before I finally whispered it out.

"False Courage is what compels you to do something when no one else would; True Courage is what compels you to do the right thing when no one else would."

I felt that it was a bit corny at first but then I thought of our society and well, it sort of made sense. Isn't our society made up of people who would willingly step forward for the benefit of the people and those who would not even move a muscle when they see someone in need?

I am not just talking about incidents out of the ordinary, like those people who watch wordlessly as a robber snatches a heavy purse away from a frail old lady or those who stand safely on shore as a young girl flails desperately in a murky canal. I am also referring to the common, everyday situation which everyday people like ourselves experience. Take our school life foe example. We have spent nearly our entire 13 years in this environment. Hence, it would be an obvious and blatant lie if any of us say that we have never seen a schoolmate struggling with his homework or a teacher appealing to the class to clear up the class. The next question is, have we ever failed to step up and offer a hand of assistance?

I can see two reasons for our lack of action. The first is cowardice. The second is indifference.

I define cowardice as the fear of doing what is right or what one believes in. I think a lot of us have a strong sense of what's right and what's wrong. However, when we witness injustice occurring, like when a classmate is being mocked at by your peers for something unjustifiable, we dare not step up because we are afraid that our actions are not justified, that others do not support us or simply because we are fearful of the shame of being mocked by our peers if we make a mistake. In my opinion, Cowardice is something we have to overcome ourselves. I think we must learn to trust our gut feeling and go through with what we think is right. I mean, stating all your thoughts in black and white and then being being laughed at is better than keeping all your frustration and indignation bottled up inside yourself, right? If you get laughed at but your intervention helps relieve someone's suffering, I think it is worth it.

On the other hand, I define indifference as the unwillingness to help or plainly ignoring someone in need. I think this is the evil in its most despicable form. How could someone just stand at a side and look on as someone suffers? I think the root cause for this is our upbringing in a calculative society. In Singapore, almost everything is subjected to a kind of grading system, be it a remark by someone of higher authority or a performance record. Everything, right down to what we say, is judged by people and put into numbers to so-called "reflect" our character. If we have a good grade or record, it means we are good, conscientious and the "model" for others to follow. If we get marked down with mediocre achievements, no one would spare an eye for us. Therefore, it our "jobs" as Singaporeans to excel in our own personal line of work and make sure that we ourselves do exceptionally well and stand out among the crowd. I think that this has lead us towards the direction of thinking that only the only people who matter in this society are ourselves and that everyone else is scum. Self-interest and materialistic gains triumph over a good heart and noble intentions in this society.

Unlike the problem of cowardice, the issue on indifference is not so easily fixed. Personally, I think this trend deteriorates following each generation. This inherent problem must be removed at the root, but right now, I think the roots are already too thick to be scraped.