the negativity of indifference.

[...]

Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of aggressor - never of his victim, whose pain is magnified when s/he feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees - not to respond to their plight is to exile them from human memory. AND IN DENYING THEIR HUMANITY WE BETRAY OUR OWN. Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century.

[...]

[Elie Wiesel, "the perils of indifference", 1999]