Just because you are involved in something that is wrong, and you aren't helping towards the solution, it doesn't mean you are part of the problem. You could just be an innocent bystander forced to participate, but not really making it worse. This isn't an over all rule though, there are some times when this is not the case. For example, you may be helping someone embezzle money from your business but not stopping it. But if you weren't helping them you wouldn't be part of the solution or the problem.
In the book Sold by Patricia McCormick, Lakshimi is unknowingly sold into sex slavery. (Sex slavery was, is, and probably will be, a big problem. Not only in the United States, but in Nepal and India where this story takes place.) She is trafficked from Nepal to India while she and her parents were told that she would be a maid. Once she realizes what has happened and has learned "the tricks of the trade," she finds out for herself what a problem it really is. Although she does nothing to stop it, she isn't the problem. It is people like Mumtaz, the "pimps" of the girls.
I think you make a very valid point about the gray areas of this issue. It is clear that many people, uncluding myself chose to write about the black and white point of view on this issue by saying that if one is not part of the solution, then they are a part of the prolbem. You did a good job of defying that not only with a direct claim but with evidence behind it.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a similar example of this view of the issue in the book with Harish (David Beckham Boy, Pushpa's son) because he is not the reason he is stuck at the Happiness House, that is by fault of Mumtez. However, he is also not in a position where he can do much about it and become a solution, because he is only eight years old.