Question

Why does elie wiesel believe indifference is the most dangerous emotion?

Answer 1

  ElieWiesel, being just a teenager, witnessed the murder of his family in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Elie himself was a prisoner. During his stay in the concentration camps, he came to feel that being abandoned by God was worse than being punished by him. It was better an unjust God than an indifferent one, hence the expression that indifference, is the emotion more harmful and more dangerous than anger or hatred. Indifference is not the beginning; is the end. And therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy because he benefits from the aggressor, never from his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.

Answer 2

In his speech “The Perils of Indifference”, Wiesel voices out that he believes indifference to even be more dangerous than anger and hatred. The two aforementioned emotions can push a person to action, whereas indifference shows a lack of compassion by not even acknowledging the injustice happening.  Indifference, while not actively causing harm, will always be an advantage to evil and thus is dangerous in itself.