The Perils of Indifference: Main Idea
The Perils of Indifference: Main Idea
@Everyone, U Up?
Throughout "The Perils of Indifference," Elie Wiesel talks about how choosing to be indifferent to the suffering of others only leads to more suffering, more discrimination, and more grief—and it also threatens the very humanity of the people that are so busy being indifferent.
If you think this sounds painfully obvious, well, good. You're right. But unfortunately, Wiesel would count you in the minority.
Despite all the genocide and war that characterized the 20th century, Wiesel didn't believe the world had really gotten the "indifference is dangerous" message…and he was really afraid of what would happen in the next 100 years. So, when President Clinton sent him an invite to speak at the White House, Wiesel jumped at the chance to remind everyone what was at stake.
Questions
- Why do you think Wiesel begins his speech by talking about his liberation from Buchenwald in 1945?
- What do you know about the various civil wars and humanitarian crises Wiesel mentions in line 17 of his speech? Why does he take the time to list so many of them?
- Where do you see indifference in our society? Where do you see indifference in your own community?
- Wiesel finishes his speech by expressing hope for the new millennium. Are you surprised he ends it this way? Do you believe he had reason to feel hopeful?
Chew On This
For Elie Wiesel, memorializing the Holocaust was not a job but a responsibility, and he believed sharing his own story, as well as the stories of other victims, was the best way to battle lingering indifference around the world.
Throughout "The Perils of Indifference," Elie Wiesel talks about the tenuous connection between indifference and humanity. He believed the very nature of humanity was threatened by individuals choosing to ignore the suffering and pain happening around the world, and the pervasive nature of indifference remained the biggest threat to true and lasting peace.
Quotes
Quote #1
Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know—that they, too, would remember, and bear witness. (5-7)
Throughout "The Perils of Indifference," Elie Wiesel talks about how gratitude is what defines humanity, and before his liberation in 1945, it's safe to say humanity was in short supply. As a result, interacting with the American soldiers was an eye-opening experience because after spending so much time being treated as something less than human, Wiesel was grateful to the soldiers who actually saw him.
The Americans freed him physically, but they also recognized him as a person, which chipped away at the place where he hid his humanity in order to survive. Wiesel knew the soldiers wouldn't forget, and he knew they wouldn't be indifferent to the sights and the smells of the concentration camp. That knowledge brought him back to life.
Quote #2
We are on the threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered in the new millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged severely, in both moral and metaphysical terms. These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations (Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin), bloodbaths in Cambodia and Algeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the gulag and the tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence; so much indifference. (13-19)
Yikes—world wars and civil wars and assassinations and genocides. It's not a pretty picture. Elie Wiesel mentions all these things, not to show us he's up to date on his New York Times daily briefings, but as a warning. This is what has happened over the course of the last century, and if we don't face it and learn from it, we'll run the risk of making the same mistakes all over again. He wants the audience to seriously think about the legacy of the past and how best to use it to fix the future.
Quote #3
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. (50-51)
As a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel believes it's important for the rest of the world to remember what happened to him and millions of other people. But it goes deeper than that because the Holocaust didn't just happen out of nowhere. Yeah, there were lots of people who supported Hitler's agenda. However, there were also a lot of people who didn't support it, but who also didn't speak out against it.
That's where the title of this speech comes from. Indifference is dangerous because not only does it lead to the kind of horror that defined the Holocaust, but it also leads to a loss of the very things that make us human. It's a conscious choice to ignore what's happening around you, and whereas being angry at something or hating it causes you to take action, indifference does the opposite. A lack of action is the peril of indifference, and we need to do better in the next 100 years.
Quote #4
But this time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene. Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? (104-110)
Sure, there were a few moments toward the end of the 20th century when people saw injustice and did something to stop it. But does that mean we're fixed, that from now on we won't stand for dictatorships or genocide?
Hey, you know the 21st century pretty well by now. What do you think?
Quote #5
And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope. (123-125)
Elie Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald when he was 16 years old, but he never really escaped the memories of the Holocaust, or the young boy he was when it all started. But somehow, despite his experiences and the rest of the world's stubborn refusal to pull itself together, he still believes there's hope for us. He dedicated his whole life to finding it, and while he was a little concerned at the turn of the century, Wiesel trusted we'd figure it out.