In society, it is customary to condemn cruelty. But few people remember that indifference can be no less terrible, because sometimes it is inextricably linked with cruelty. Often it breeds hatred and injustice, so the price of indifference is very high, and society always pays this fee in full.
Cruelty is the intentional harm to someone else. This, of course, cannot be justified. But is it not less cruel to remain indifferent, knowing about evil, but not reacting in any way? Pass by, pretending that you don’t notice anything when someone is suffering, and perhaps needs your help? For example, some classmates of Lena Bessoltseva, the heroine of Vladimir Zheleznyakov’s story “Scarecrow,” knew perfectly well about the persecution that lasted more than one month. Let them not even be the instigators of this cruelty, but with their indifference they tacitly agreed with her, and thereby continued to mock Lena. Perhaps if one of them spoke out against boycott and bullying, everything would have turned out differently.
Indifference can not only support cruelty, but also “injure” a person more painfully than intentional evil. Such indifference, of course, injured people Pechorin, the hero of the novel by Mikhail Lermontov “Hero of our time”. Gregory never did deliberate evil, but the indifference with which he relates to some people, causes the suffering of innocent characters. For example, he started a game with Mary's feelings just like that, out of boredom. Therefore, he did not care what happened to the girl when his deception was revealed, and he would stop playing with her. When Pechorin confesses Mary to the insincerity of her feelings, he does not think at all about the consequences of his act - what happens next to the poor girl, he hardly cares. With the same indifference for many years he refers to Faith. His disregard for these two women may have partly broken their lives. But does Pechorin think about this? Hardly, he doesn’t care.
Let everyone be afraid of cruelty, but no less need to beware of indifference. It always walks somewhere close to cruelty, evil and injustice. Indifference can do much more harm, even if not intentionally.
