Callous society or are people too afraid to help?

[Quackers]

forget it

 

[emzie]

It sounds like people want to avoid lawsuits or being punished for trying to help. I don't blame the Chinese under those circumstances - why would you want to go out of your way to accept potential life-crushing liability?

I couldn't live with myself if I saw a dying toddler and didn't do a thing.

 

[Flying Pig]

Similar things have happened in the United States before. I remember a thread about one on here, where I was roundly hammered for saying I would help someone laying in the road like that, because if you try to help someone and wind up hurting them more in the process you can be held liable and sued for that.

In general, provided that you act as a reasonable person would, in line with your expertise (so don't go providing brain surgery because you did a CPR class at work) and don't abandon the casualty once you've started treatment, you cannot be sued. Not to mention the fact that, firstly, nobody's going to try to chase you for it and secondly no court will award it on the condition that you act within the mostly-common-sense guidelines.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If you want to talk about those laws that protect people who help others [I'm not gonna attempt to spell that word] check out this thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=443614

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I like how the Media twist this story, in order to induce yet another moral panic.

It is a one small isolated incident blown to a proportion for which to create distrust, cynicism, and to foster or reinforce anti-Chinese sentiments onto the global citizenry.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I like how the Media twist this story, in order to induce yet another moral panic.

It is a one small isolated incident blown to a proportion for which to create distrust, cynicism, and to foster or reinforce anti-Chinese sentiments onto the global citizenry.

Pretty much. It's a great chance to jump on the immoral Chinese society bandwagon and villainise them.

This is simply the Bystander Effect in action. There was a case in NYC where a man was stabbed and left to bleed to death, and over 20 people walked by him lying on the sidewalk - one taking pictures - while no help was given. The man later died. It's a weird psychological issue.

 

[NovaKart]

My sister lives in NY and she once passed out on the subway and woke up on the floor and no one had helped her. Of course everyone probably assumed she had just Od'd

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My sister lives in NY and she once passed out on the subway and woke up on the floor and no one had helped her. Of course everyone probably assumed she had just Od'd

One time ... I'm very sensitive to perfume and they can trigger asthma attacks and someone in a grocery store once was wearing a crapload of it and I nearly collapsed nobody helped they kept shopping. That was scary. I was fine once I got away from it but I thought I was gonna die.

 

[carmen510]

Having visited China almost every two years since my birth (My family was from Shanghai and I have grandparents there, though I was born and raised in the US), I've become disgusted by the utter lack of common courtesy and respect displayed there in society. If you're friends with the native Chinese, they are among the friendliest and most courteous people on an intimate basis, but if you're a stranger and not a foreigner/person who might reward or punish them, forget anything in the way of help or manners. Trust me, whatever people say about the rudeness of Americans, people raised on the Chinese mainland are likely ten times as worse.

I'm not surprised by this incident; in fact, I'm amazed other such incidents haven't been reported. The Communists seem to have done really well in eradicating Confucianism, though I've heard it had been declining even since the Chinese Republic was declared.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Confucianism is having a resurgence in recent decades, particularly since Mao reign ended. I think any rudeness is more of an issue of previous state doctrine than anything, which China put above religion during Mao.

 

[amadeus]

I couldn't live with myself if I saw a dying toddler and didn't do a thing.

I couldn't live with myself if I had done something good only to have my life (including property) robbed from me. I just won't take the chance of ruining my life in a good deed.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I couldn't live with myself if I had done something good only to have my life (including property) robbed from me. I just won't take the chance of ruining my life in a good deed.

Which about sums up your morality.

 

[aelf]

forget it

Good choice.

Pretty much. It's a great chance to jump on the immoral Chinese society bandwagon and villainise them.

This is simply the Bystander Effect in action. There was a case in NYC where a man was stabbed and left to bleed to death, and over 20 people walked by him lying on the sidewalk - one taking pictures - while no help was given. The man later died. It's a weird psychological issue.

To be fair, the Chinese are making this out to be a social problem rather than an isolated incident in their media.

Having visited China almost every two years since my birth (My family was from Shanghai and I have grandparents there, though I was born and raised in the US), I've become disgusted by the utter lack of common courtesy and respect displayed there in society. If you're friends with the native Chinese, they are among the friendliest and most courteous people on an intimate basis, but if you're a stranger and not a foreigner/person who might reward or punish them, forget anything in the way of help or manners. Trust me, whatever people say about the rudeness of Americans, people raised on the Chinese mainland are likely ten times as worse.

I'm not surprised by this incident; in fact, I'm amazed other such incidents haven't been reported. The Communists seem to have done really well in eradicating Confucianism, though I've heard it had been declining even since the Chinese Republic was declared.

Confucianism is having a resurgence in recent decades, particularly since Mao reign ended. I think any rudeness is more of an issue of previous state doctrine than anything, which China put above religion during Mao.

Again, it's not because of the erasure of traditions (or religion). The extreme kind of communal ethics displayed is also part of the old traditions.

 

[amadeus]

Which about sums up your morality.

Nor would I want my girlfriend to volunteer in an inner city slum where she would face the possibility of being raped or killed, even if she could help people in need.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The main danger is not court damage, it's the thieves and crooks! Crooks are very crafty, they can pretend to be anyone in order to take your wallet and run away! Policemen, nice old ladies, "wounded people asking for help" - don't trust them! Stay away from them! Stay away from the mean streets if you value your life and money! Good Samaritans are daily robbed and beaten up by those whom they are trying to "help"! It's a wolf-eats-wolf world!

 

[BasketCase]

Callous society, definitely. A friend of mine experienced it firsthand--thankfully not by means of getting hit in a traffic accident. People simply don't care over there. Being a pedestrian in China means, it's the pedestrian who yields to the traffic.

 

[katipunero]

Studies have shown that if an accident happens in a crowded place people often don't help because they just believe someone else will do it. If it's an isolated place people are more likely to help.

I lived in China for awhile and I never wittnessed anything like this. Of course I wasn't there for very long. The interesting thing is, in China if there's a fight, people crowd around really closely and watch it.

this. you are more likely to receive aid from a random stranger in a sparsely populated area than in a crowded street or metro. what happened to Yue Yue is by no means a Chinese or ethnic related phenomenon. the apparent apathetic attitude of the people in the video is universal. so to write "callous society" as the lead title of this thread is quite uncalled for.

there seems to be a glitch in how human compassion and empathy are triggered or muted the larger the crowd gets or the higher the expectation that someone else will come to the rescue.

the classic case oft cited as an example of "bystander intervention", is that of a New York city woman who has been sexually assaulted and murdered in plain view of at least 40 bystanders. despite the screams for help and the brutal attacks nobody called the police or rendered aid and assistance. while some of the facts are inaccurate and exaggerated, the anecdotal points of the story have been used to describe human apathy in crowded areas.

 

[Winner]

Sounds like Czechia.

 

[aelf]

so to write "callous society" as the lead title of this thread is quite uncalled for.

Again, it's not like the Chinese themselves don't discuss this as a social problem. The thread title does not reflect my opinion as much as it reflects what's in the public discourse.

 

[katipunero]

That's not unbelievable as far as Chinese mentality goes. However, stuff like this happens in the West too. Sometimes the reason offered is that playing good Samaritan doesn't pay in the age of lawsuits. That's no excuse, to be honest, but it's indeed quite tragic if true.

accordingly, it's within the realm of normality and status quo when a Chinese dude refuses to help a person because that's just how his Chinese mentality operates.

but if a person of western ethnicity refuses to help a victim in need of urgent assistance, his deliberate omission to help is only borne by a pragmatic and cool-headed rationale of avoiding tort liability.

hmmm