terms a “pornography of pain” since its inception.^54 The eagerness of crowds to
attend punishments and executions is a long-standing phenomenon.^55 The line
between that which shocks and that which excites is often a fine one, or simply
depends on the character of the viewer. Vaux cautions that “that the motive of pity
so easily interacts with the motive for cruelty, and the desire to help so easily
becomes the desire for power”.^56 As we will see, this places any agent who might
wish to stimulate empathy in something of a conundrum, as they can never control
the terms on which the suffering they convey will be received.
But what of Levi’s ignorance “won and defended”? The role of the bystander
is arguably the most troubling to those who would probe the affective content of
humanitarian impulses. How can they be so vividly absent? The bystander has been
the subject of much scrutiny since the Holocaust, and there are a plethora of
plausible explanations for why such a stance is not only possible, but often likely.
David Rieff writes that: “[the] moral test of being an onlooker at other people’s
tragedies is one that few of us are likely to pass reliably.”^57 Norman Geras’ elegant
book The Contract of Mutual Indifference is a stark study of how bystander attitudes
might come to be generalised.^58 His account takes the form of an implicit contract.
He argues that it is all too easy for us to constitute our social relationships on a basis
of not helping each other, of not extending solidarity. If we do not assist others in
emergencies, we cannot expect them to feel duty-bound to come to our
assistance.^59 He shows the troubling ease with which we can become bystanders,
wrapped in a cocoon of denial.
54
Karen Halttunen, "Humanitarianism and the Pornography of Pain in Anglo-American
Culture", The American Historical Review 100, no. 2 (1995). See also Mario Klarer,
"Humanitarian Pornography: John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition
against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796)", New Literary History 36, no. 4 (2005).
Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal, "Disaster Pornography from Somalia", Los Angeles Times
(10 December 1992). Available at http://articles.latimes.com/1992-12-10/local/me-
2208_1_somalia-disaster-pornography; accessed on 11 55 June 2010.
56 See the section on “The Public Spectacle of Pain” in Hunt, Inventing Human Rights , 92-98.
57 Vaux, The Selfish Altruist , 95.
58 Rieff, A Bed for the Night , 3.
59 Geras, The Contract of Mutual Indifference.
Ibid., 28.