Bystander Apathy!

So are you one of them? One of those people who just stand by and watch something happen to someone else and do nothing to help? One of those people who waits for somebody else to help, or hopes that someone else will help ... as long as it's not you? Well, Madrid is full of them. So is the rest of the world, I guess. Not to mention history itself.

Today was one of those days when a simple 5 minute stroll to the supermarket involved SuperLinton having to come to the aid of 3 different people, because nobody else would. Act of chivalry #1 involved a woman with her baby in pram unable to mount a flight of seven stairs to enter the lobby of her apartment building, because unlike the octopus, she didn't have eight arms with which to pick up her two bags of shopping plus the baby and pram, and get up the stairs. And neither do you or I. I saw her when I was still a way off, and despite being on a busy street, and having seen her ask people for help, they just walked past immersed in their own worlds of texting, chatting, or running to the pedestrian crossing that was currently green, because that was the last time this millenium that that specific traffic light was ever going to be green to cross the road again. So I obliged and in a couple of seconds, the lady was homeward bound, and I was still able to cross the road. And that's where act of chivalry #2 took place.

With the little green man in the traffic light now flashing and beeping, signaling ten seconds to go before the light turned green for the traffic to start moving again, everyone suddenly upped their pace to a maddened trot in order to get to the other side safe and sound before they got run over. This involves a lot of ducking and diving of the 'mind-you're-in-my-way' shoulder barging kind, as people make their charge for safety, and caught in the middle of this pandemonium for the pavement, as well as the middle of the street itself, was a little old lady. Now truthfully, I don't know if she had second thoughts about crossing the road, forgot that she was crossing a road, or was just traumatised by the sudden eruption of mayhem on the zebra crossing, but she was being knocked back and forth like a ping pong ball, and going nowhere fast - other than under a bus. With only a couple of seconds to spare, I managed to work out that she'd been separated from her husband in the crowd and didn't know which way he'd gone. Well neither did I, but with the light now having changed and the bus driver revving at my rear, we needed to get to a side fast, so I made the call and headed to the side with the supermarket. As we approached the pavement, the bus driver, very obviously mumbling obscenities, waved us goodbye with his middle finger. My mind told me that this was an appropriate time for me to do the same and extend my middle finger and also wave him goodbye, but all I managed to do was screw up my nose and stick out my tongue like a five year old as he drove away. Grandpa, incidentally, was already waiting on the pavement. After a happy reunion of much kissing and hugging, and being told what a good boy I was, as well as being told and promoted to the rank of a saint, I resumed my journey to the supermarket. Enter SuperLinton feat #3.

Here was a little boy, very determined to get a box of Oreos off the top shelf. So determined in fact, that he'd actually climbed up the shelves which were now bending very precariously under his weight and obviously about to collapse. Like on the street and on the pedestrian crossing, I was not alone in the shopping aisle, and was certainly not the closest person to the kid, but again people just watched and waited for the shelves to collapse and the aisle to be flooded with boxes of biscuits without doing a thing to help the boy. After walking over and taking both the boy and his biscuits off the shelf, I turned to the couple standing right there with an obvious look of disappointment that I'd thwarted the coming calamity, and gave them a piece of my mind, telling them that it doesn't take much to help someone out.

So, what's the point of all these stories? I don't actually know, but two things come to mind. Firstly, I remember reading an article about the 'Bystander Effect'. In social psychology this is the surprising finding that the mere presence of other people inhibits our own helping behaviours in an emergency. This study's originality comes from the finding that the more people there are present, the longer participants will take to help. This is because everybody waits for someone else to move first. Why don't you be the person that makes the difference, the one who stands out from the crowd. And secondly, we all know that what you sow you reap; what goes around, comes around; what you give you get, etc. One day, some day, any one of us could find ourselves in a situation where we need the help and assistance of someone else. Turning our back on an opportunity to help and make a difference could be a fatal mistake. I'm reminded of something that I read in the book of Judges. In chapter 8 Gideon and his army of 300 men had been chasing the Midianites. They were tired and hungry and when they arrived at the town of Succoth, Gideon asked the elders of the town to give his men some food and rest, but they refused and sent Gideon and his men away. Gideon promised the elders that when he returned he would 'teach them a lesson and tear their flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness', and that's exactly what he did. If we don't help out where we can or make a difference where we can, it won't take long before the tables turn, and the thorns and briers of life's experiences could teach us a nasty lesson.

Make a difference for someone - today!