Ponderings…Safety in numbers

I saw a video the other day, and along with the video came a very important lesson, one I feel is important to share. In the video, a woman was describing something that a professor in her college did. He had always been very kind and soft-spoken, pleasant to all his students throughout the course of the semester. This is why she was surprised when, one day, she entered class and her professor was, out of the blue, aggressive and short-tempered.
That day, all of the desks had been rearranged in a circle, pointed inward toward the center. In the center of the circle was a single desk, with a small fishbowl on it. Inside the fishbowl swam a small fish.
The professor slammed a textbook down on his desk angrily and ordered all of the students to sit down at once in one of the desks in the circle. He glared dangerously around the room and said in a stern voice, “Sit down. Shut up. You are not allowed to move or speak at all. And anyone who does will immediately fail my class.”
Then, the professor reached into the fishbowl, removed the fish, and set it on the table before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him. The students looked on from their desks in shocked silence as the fish gaped helplessly on the table.
Each student remained frozen in their seats, watching this fish struggle for breath on the tabletop. No one dared to move or speak. They looked helplessly at one another, all willing someone else to get up and rescue the dying fish. No one wanted to be the first or only one to do so, for fear of the punishment.
Nearly two minutes went by before a girl in the class, named Hannah, finally rose from her chair, cursing. She went to the table in the center of the room, picked the fish up gently and placed it back into the bowl of water, where it began to swim around again. Moments later, the professor returned, his demeanor gentle again. He looked around at his class and said, “Look at what the world has done to you. You've betrayed yourself. And for what?”
In life, there will be moments when you know something must be done. You will see injustices and cruelties, and any manner of inhumanity, and it will cause something within you to call out. It is in these moments that you will have a choice to make. Do you risk drawing attention (and by default, punishment) to yourself to answer that call? Or do you sit by in horrified silence, ignoring that call as someone commits a callous act right in front of you?
This phenomenon is called The Bystander Effect. It happens when the presence of others discourages someone from intervening in an emergency, against a bully or while a crime is being committed. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for anyone to act. A single person is often decisive, brave and kind. When we are in a group, we hesitate to single ourselves out, even if it is to rescue, defend or save someone else. Many believe it stems from a mixture of fear of retaliation and an assumption that someone else will act for you.
It is important to be aware of this, and to listen to your heart when it tells you something is inhumane and urges you to act in the defense of others. We each must determine at what point is our own comfort worth risking? Where do we draw the line between compliance and courage? At the end of the day, may we each learn when to draw the line, and when to cross over it.
(The instructor later assured his class that the fish used for this lesson was a species that can survive for up to 15 minutes out of water. While the class was unaware of this, the fish was never in any danger of suffocation at all.)