Rescue of Memory

Authors

Samuel P. Oliner
Ronnie Swartz, Cal Poly Humboldt

Files

Description

What motivates people to help, to care, to risk their own lives for others? What differentiates rescuers, helpers, carers, and by-standers?

There is no single explanation. Anyone who offers you a single explanation of why people do good things is over-simplifying. Empathy is very important. So is courage. And compassion. By-standers, I want to impress on you, are not evil people, they are not people who should be put in a ship and sent to outer space. They are also good human beings, but they have not internalized some of the ethics of caring, of social responsibility, of knowing. They may not have learned from moral parents, role models, or ethical communities that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. That’s what makes me so optimistic at this stage in my life. In fact, teaching caring, compassion, and altruism is possible, is learnable, is doable. We can move millions of people from a role of neutral by-stander—who say, “Well, these are not my people,” “I am too busy,” “It’s too dangerous,” “I don’t have the time,” and so forth. These people can be sensitized to the consequences of indifference. I know it is possible to teach people to care and then we can transform the by-standers, perhaps, into more helpers, altruists, and compassionate actors. -Dr. Samuel P. Oliner. September 9, 2003, “America at Night Reading Room”

ISBN

978-1-962081-23-8

Publication Date

Spring 3-11-2025

Publisher

The Press at Cal Poly Humboldt

City

Arcata, Ca

Keywords

Memoirs, Altruism, Ethics, Social Responsibility

Disciplines

Jewish Studies | Other Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Recommended Citation

Oliner, Samuel P. and Swartz, Ronnie. Rescue of Memory. The Press at Cal Poly Humboldt, 2025. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/monographs/27.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.