Scary bus ride

I am quite shaken by a traumatizing bus ride today. Two African American women were going to beat up another woman on the bus all because someone's toes got trode on. It was really freaky. They were really agressive and hey I have seen fights on S'pore MRT trains before, and I remember that story of the crazy man that slapped another man for being a bit squashed up. But I don't think I've seen anything this dramatic and frankly, quite as scary. I wonder why people get so worked up over such a minor issue. Hey come on, someone's toe got stepped on, we've witnessed and experienced it all the time.

"Bitch, bitch, you fuck with my cousin. You're fucking with me!" Exploded all over the rear end of the bus. It was really animal anger in the voice if can imagine what I mean. That kind of voice you only hear in movies when someone is going to get beaten up real badly. And they didn't just quarrel, they tried to shove each other but thankfully the bus was so crowded they couldn't get at each other. There was not enough space for a fist fight. But they body-language were so agressive. The other woman was going like "Alright. ALright." But their response was "It's not alright..blah blah (more taunting)" Cellphone calls were made (loudly) about how she met this "Bitch" on the bus."

I wondered about what I would or would not do if a fight borke out. Recalled the "by-stander effect" and feel scared by our inability or unwillingless to do anything out of fear and self protection. The scary thing was everybody was looking away as if not wanting to acknowledge this, and even the men standing around seemed pasty-faced and scared. Tough question, but I wonder if I would have dared to do anything--thank heavens things never got to a stage when I would have make that decision. But really, I don't think it is easy to look at our cowardice in the face and hear in the back of our mind that famous quote going "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.." I won't even classify myself as a "good" 'man' in the first place nor the incident as "evil" for that matter. BUt not going into the theoretical relativity of "good" and "evil", just looking at this incident at its face value. If I honestly felt powerless in this case, when faced with soemthing massively more terrible can we choose not to turn away? WHy do we even bother looking at the cause of evil, ask ourselves with bitterness why things like the Holocaust can happen. The answer, too terrible for us to admit is just staring at our faces, afterall it is just so much easier to pretend and will the whole thing away. Evil, is really not that metaphysical. IT is easier to blame a satan than to admit we cannot stand up to do the right thing when the test comes. "Ignorance is bliss"-- no matter how we achieve this "ignorance' it is still easier to live by than the moralistic "duty of good men" which is so much easier to recite than to put into action. WE can go 'tsk tsk tsk' everytime we see something horrifying on the news but when put to teh test I fear for my own response. Could I have lived with myself if I did turn away?