Charlotte Salon: "But For Me, It Was Tuesday"

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday," so says the villainous M. Bison in the 1994 Street Fighter movie. Over the last decade and a half, the line has emerged as a pithy summation on the "banality of evil" when it is in fact a contradiction. While M. Bison is an outlandish antagonist in the the Street Fighter series, the banality of evil refers to not supervillains but the regular people who commit atrocities as a function of bureaucracy. That said, the sentiment captures what many have felt, especially in the last 20 years--we're in an era of genocide, famine and other catastrophe, and yet the world moves on. In this discussion, we'll go into what "evil" actually is, why many of us are more likely to be bystanders rather than heroes in the face of it, and how evil shows up in the most surprising and unexpected places, even in service of good works. Core Question: We know that current and historical horrors are not unique anomalies, but why do they continue to happen, and what can we as ordinary citizens do to stop them? What would it take? Core Resources (must reads): * https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/holocaust-student-education-jewish-anti-semitism/673488/ * https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/dangerous-dirty-violent-young-ayers-dohrn-weather-underground/ * https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/americas/actually-democracy-dies-in-hr.html Supplemental Resources (optional): * https://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/uploads/1/2/2/4/122437058/mark_seddon_essay.pdf * https://www.thisamericanlife.org/318/with-great-power