It’s the fantasy we like to indulge in, isn’t it? That if we had been alive during an important moment in history, we would have done the right thing. We would throw ourselves in front of the king’s horse to further the suffragette cause. We would join the Freedom Riders to protest against segregated bus terminals in 1960s America. We would offer to hide Anne Frank in our attic, determined to protect her. Yet in real life, it seems we’re not always as selfless as we might like to believe.
Of course, when the news first broke of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we were falling over ourselves to help. By March 11 the Red Cross said there had been almost 14,500 pledges of accommodation for
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