I just came to know of a woman who was raped. i.e., not on TV but in real life, I saw her sobbing face. I didn't have a clue what to do. I believe the right thing to tell her would have been to say, go to the police right now and give a rape exam, this would at least make sure there is a small chance that the scumbags who committed the crime would be caught for good.
Now, I didn't muster up enough courage to do it. Instead I thought "Well, why should I care about her? I am pretty sure lots of women get raped every day, why should I care about her? I am late for something and I should get going" and I did get going. Moreover, she was swarmed by a ton of women consoling her and I doubt if she wanted to talk to man right now. And moreover, I can't imagine it being an easy job to convince her to do anything in that stage. So, I just left her be to the mercy of women gathered there and I just came to know that the good rowdies of the street offered the woman to freshen up at their house, thus most likely erasing all trace of the crime from her body. Now, their mothers and sisters live there and I made sure that she left their bloody house (i.e., Ik, I didn't drag her out) because I think the rowdies of the street are beyond doing the horrible act themselves.
But yeah, I did a morally reprehensible thing where one needed moral courage, just because I didn't want to do the hard work and sacrifice my own time for the betterment of an other.
- And the man/men who committed that act on her, did it most probably because they were resentful and they liked doing it. So, how does one decide what is moral and immoral?
I did it because I liked it doesn't really to seem to have worked out in this situation. I didn't do it because I didn't like it (i.e., me) doesn't seem to be a stellar option either.
This didn't happen but,
Bonus question: If that victim was say standing on a train line here, what should one do? What should a man do? Should he make sure to use his force to remove her from the spot and thus "saving her" but in the process exerting control and taking away the one act of free will she has done since the horrible incident? Who says saving her is the "right" thing to do?
Again, putting myself as the first priority, I am not going to reply until I am free.
These issues need to be probed much deeper than a post on lemmy, so are there any books on moral questions relating to what I am asking here which you know of, in which case please mention it.
Morality is subjective. We each decide for ourselves what we consider good and bad. You can still construct a useful ethical system, though. Personally, I don't want to be murdered. Therefore, I want to live in a society where murdering people is outlawed. Some people might want to murder, and I want to live in a society where they are segregated from the public if they do so, i.e. jail. You can extend this to much of the social contract we live under, in this case rape.
From your description, I don't think what you did was wrong. The bystander effect is very real and just human nature. Seeing that she was being taken care of by someone was enough IMO.
You seem to also have an underlying moral code that the same rules should apply to everyone. But you could also say "I don't want a society where people murder me or my friends and family. As for the rest, who cares."
I wouldn't call that an underlying moral code. You could call it laziness, I guess. I don't want to live in a society where I have to worry "Will I get murdered today?". If the entire state of Alabama starts getting murder happy it won't affect me directly, but I'm sure going to start worrying that it'll spread to other states where it does affect me.
I also would worry about the citizens of Alabama, don't get me wrong. But that's not from foundational philosophical reasoning, that's just because of a human emotional response. If, for some inscrutable reason, Alabama collectively decided that they all loved murdering each other and only each other (excepting people unable to consent), I guess I'd just shrug and accept it? There's some food for thought there, but it's very similar to the willing cannibalism case.