Opinion
From Inclination to Action
NIGEL WARBURTON
When Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the who woman challenged the blood- stained man, Jeremiah Adebolajo, who had just cut Lee Rigby down in a Woolwich street with a meat cleaver that was still in his hand, she demonstrated a selfless bravery. Feeling that she had to confront evil, she tried to reason with him, and steer his focus away from other possible victims. Hers was a gut reaction. Few would have been capable of what she did: “I just instinctively did it.’ She said, “the same as if anyone had been crying and lying hurt on the ground. I am a mother. It was the same for the Caribbean lady. We both felt it was the right thing to do.” These brave women shielded Rigby’s body from further blows, and though a stranger, treated him almost as they would have done their own sons. Samuel P. Oliner, a Polish Jew whose family was murdered in 1942, and who narrowly escaped the Nazis, devoted his later life to studying acts of heroic kindness. In The Altruistic Personality (1992), he asked what kind of a person was prepared to risk their life to save Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Were there common features shared by
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such people? Based on more than a thousand interviews, the research indicated a combination of factors at play. Key, for many, was upbringing. The values learnt as children, a sense of the equality of all humanity, a notion that everyone should be judged by the same standards, these were central. For some this came from Christianity, but religiosity was only weakly related to propensity to become a rescuer. Nor were feelings of empathy and compassion alone enough to overcome the fear of reprisals if caught. As it was put, ‘the step from inclination to action is a large one’. You can feel compassion, but that doesn’t compel you to risk your life. For many the emotional foundation of such action seemed to have been established very early on within a family that put an emphasis on reasoning rather than strict discipline. They emerged simply recognizing that in these circumstances this is what they should do, whatever the risk. There was little reflection or discussion, just action. It is likely that such dangerous and selfless behavior is actually beyond most of us, particularly if we have not had the good fortune of a nurturing
childhood. If we are lucky enough not to be tested we may never know for sure, like non-climbers who never discover their fear of heights. We may be constitutional bystanders rather than rescuers, like the 70 or so passersby who, horrified and disgusted by the scene, watched in disbelief and admiration as Loyau- Kennett distracted the apparent murderer, were too frightened of the consequences to take action to prevent or even protest them. The case of Loyau-Kennett, though, has an unexpected twist. A Guardian interview (May 27th, 2013) reveals her to be a firm retributivist about punishment. She thinks that the killers should be killed – painfully – in the way they butchered their victim: “If it were possible, then, yes, they should die a painful death.” This is surprising – to me at least.
I’d expected someone so ready to put her life at stake to protect strangers to be compassionate through and through. We have to judge her from her actions in stalling the killers, actions which probably saved several lives. In life such altruistic rescuers are so much rarer than bystanders. In difficult times their existence can restore belief in humanity. l
www.humanism-scotland.org.uk
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