but ultimately, how hard is it, I wonder, for people to have sufficient presence of mind in a situation to realize '... this is wrong, I'm going to find a way to not do it'? Many have managed to do so throughout history. It's not impossible.
It's not impossible, for some people, at some times, to make the right choice. But I don't think that you can assume that because one person makes the right choice that it is easy for everyone to do so. As I said, different people are different. They have different circumstances, different ideals, different abilities, different fears, different knowledge, etc., etc. Can you really say that if you were in Nazi Germany you would have been one of the few who stood up and resisted? Of course
all of us would like to believe that we would have, but history tells otherwise.
That is why I think that emotions are so important. Is logic what decides how people act? IME, it is not the primary factor. I don't think it is about intelligence or presence of mind. Fear, hatred, contempt, courage, love, compassion...these are the things that determine how one acts in any given situation.
