Transcript The Activist, the Bystander, and the Perpetrator

The Activist, the
Bystander, and the
Perpetrator

In a Dictatorship, (A form of government
in which the ruler is an absolute dictator
and not restricted by a constitution, laws
or opposition) people tend to be in one of
the three camps:
The Activist
The Bystander
The Perpetrator
#1. The Activist (or Resistor):

One who actively engages in open or
secret resistance against the government
and believes strongly in democracy. They
agitate and try to remind their countrymen
and women that no one is safe in a
dictatorship.
Mahatmas Gandhi
India: 1930
After trying to break the
hold of mighty British
Empire, Gandhi
developed the idea of
non-violent action. Using
mass peaceful protests,
defiance, and hunger
strikes to provoke a
response, Gandhi was
able to bring
independence to India.
Rosa Parks
Alabama: 1955
Parks, a 42 year old
seamstress refused to
give up her bus seat to a
white man. Setting the
wheels in motion for
Martin Luther King’s non
violent bus boycott, Rosa
Parks is considered the
"mother of the civil Rights
movement"
Sophia M. Scholl
Munich: 1943
22 year old German Sophia
Scholl was a member of the
non-violent group called the
White Rose. Opposing Nazi
rule, the group members were
arrested when a custodian saw
them leave their leaflets on the
desks of their university. The
Nazi Party had the group
beheaded, yet their spirit went
on to inspire others.
"Tank Man"
China: 1989
An unknown man
steps in front of a
column of tanks in
protest of the bloody
repression of students
by China's Communist
government.
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=SB70mW
XrzEE&feature=player
_embedded
#2. The Bystander:
These are people who don’t necessarily support the
dictator but whom say nothing against it. They try to go
on with their daily lives and to "Weather the storm."
Today, it is easy to judge from the safety of our homes
and couches. We watch documentaries on the History
Channel and declare that if we were in Nazi Germany we
would fight the system.
Would we? Would you?
Or would we keep our head down and hope things
would improve? Are there situations when peaceful
protest will not work?
"In Germany they first came for
the Communists, and I didn't’
speak up because I wasn’t a
Communist. Then they came
for the Jews, and I didn't’
speak up because I wasn’t a
Jew. Then they came for the
trade unionists, and I didn’t
speak up because I wasn’t a
trade unionist. Then they came
for the Catholics, and I didn’t
speak up because I was a
Protestant. Then they came for
me, and by that time no one
else was left to speak up."
- Martin Niemoller
Question: Does peaceful protest
always work?
Peaceful Hippies under
scrutiny by police.
Late 1960’s.
Would peaceful protest
have worked in Nazi
Germany 1933 –
1945?
#3. The Active Participant or
Perpetrator:
These are people who see opportunity
and use the fear, hate and violence of a
dictatorship to further themselves at the
expense of others. Unfortunately the list is
long and infamous.
Irma Greise
The B**** of Buchenwald

This SS Guard
showed extreme
cruelty towards the
inmates of
Buchenwald. After the
war, Greise was
captured and
executed during the
Nuremburg trials of
1945.
Roy Cohn
Architect of the Red scare

Assisting Joseph
McCarthy, Cohn
helped
"investigate" (i.e.
torture people in
order to get
information)
communist
infiltration in
America during the
"Red Scare."
Adolf Eichmann
The Banality of Evil

Eichmann was the
bureaucratic of the
Holocaust. Thanks
to his orderly and
efficient manner,
Eichmann was put
in charge of
shipping thousands
of Jews to their
deaths.
What Would You Do?
BIKE THIEF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0kV_b3IK9M
CYBER BULLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVxafF
gXq0
WASTED TEEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRJ2_9I
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