As If You'd Done It Yourself

I was pondering this ethical question yesterday after an incident. If something happens (bad) and you are a bystander who doesn't do or say anything, are you just as responsible? What if you consider the bad situation as 'normal' or 'good'? Are you still morally reprehensible?

I was at the gym the other day and saw out of the corner of my jaundiced eye a former co-irker at a job that, to mince words, went very poorly due to some terrible behaviour of the boss. The co-irker was a nice enough person who absolutely didn't see anything wrong with the boss's treating us like shit. Therein lies the problem--if they don't see an issue, is there one really?

I guess it helped that the boss and co-irker got along fabulously and would have weekend plans together, special meetings w/o the rest of the sad chain gang and got all sorts of great favours. New computers, nice wall art, an office specially built...Oh, the mismanagement of government funds went a long way to give the 'favoured few' some great treats!

Back to the gym. I did the only mature thing I could. Completely ignored the co-irker and pretended I didn't see them. The other thing I wanted to do was give them the finger as I walked by, but it was relatively busy and others might misinterpret this as a gesture to them. And that would be tragic. So, I limit my bad behaviour to giving the building the finger when I drive by. It feels cathartic. Oh and badmouthing them every chance I get. Take that!

I guess it's just this holiday feeling I get, where I want to get all vendetta-ish on the assholes from prior jobs. Gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside...