A single death, said Stalin, is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic. We know, alas, precisely what he meant by this cynical remark: it is beyond our human capacity to grasp emotionally, rather than intellectually, the suffering of more than a few people at a time. As soon as that number is passed, we strain to feel, rather than actually do feel, and a false note is introduced into our expressions of compassion or anger. We feel guilty that we do not feel a million times more strongly for a million people than we do for one, and so inflate our language. … Continue reading Is It Wrong To Bribe a Prison Guard?