Although many people believe anger and hatred cause others to act out in violence or turn own friends against each other, the real problem is indifference. The quote by the Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, emphasizes how disastrous indifference really is: “More dangerous than anger and hatred is indifference. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end—and it is always the friend of the enemy” (Wiesel). In support of Elie Wiesel’s position, indifference is far more destructive than both anger and hatred combined.
Indifference, to start with, refers to the disinterest people feel when they don’t care or intervene when something happens around them. Indifference can be seen in many ways: whether from the Holocaust or conflicts right here in
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In this way, indifference is so inhuman that it would cause another human to become oblivious to the suffering of those around them.
The failure to recognize such suffering is an end. When no one becomes involved to help those affected who will pay attention to the victim's cries? Surely not the enemy. We see poverty on our own streets and hear of violence in our communities. How important is all this if we don't speak up? By ignoring the suffering around us anger and hatred no longer exist. People are incapable of feeling because they choose to ignore and abandon the victims - something even anger and hatred cannot do.
With anger and hatred, people's lives are still acknowledged. Indifference, however, conveys no acknowledgment of a person's existence. It is so destructive no one cares whether their life is necessary. It does not matter to the enemy. Indifference can easily be seen in the
victims of the genocide during the holocaust or our past view that a slave should be worth ⅗ of a white person. When Wiesel conveys indifference in this way, he does so from the experience