Beautiful Souls: The Courage and Conscience of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times Highlight

In a world governed by large, impersonal forces, where the link between cause and effect is increasingly unclear, individuals thrust into compromising situations are rarely at a loss for opportunities to disavow responsibility in this way, not only when the dilemmas are extreme but, perhaps even more so, when they are prosaic. It’s easy enough to judge soldiers at Abu Ghraib or bystanders during World War II who failed to find their courage when unconscionable things were happening before their eyes. It’s a lot harder to acknowledge or even realize how often we avoid making uncomfortable choices in the course of our daily lives by attributing the small injustices that momentarily grate at our consciences to the system, or the circumstances, or our superiors.