A few weeks ago I started a discussion in a Risk Management group on LinkedIn and the conversation involving people from all over the world has been fascinating. One member concluded the following (I'm paraphrasing a bit) and I think it's a very on-target description of the nature of average human beings:

Most people in life will never become a whistleblower, they are passive observers and also conditioned by an instinct of survival. If the enemy is the crocodile in the lake, they reason it is wise to stay out of the lake. But there are others, who see injustice or evil and they are not conditioned to standby and do nothing.

Follow up:

It was Edmund Burke who said 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men (and women) do nothing.'

Hence there are some who will enter the lake to confront the crocodile to challenge the evil. And the world is a far better place because of these people.

And then, this morning, I received this picture in a "viral" e-mail that made me contemplate who the crocodiles are in our current society - I think he's one of them for certain.