Good for you, Barry!

Heroes are those who act on matters of moral principle when it would be a lot easier—or less dangerous—for them to just look the other way. Heroes act on principle even when they have nothing to gain, and their actions may, indeed, cost them dearly. The person who risks his or her own life to save someone else. Or the whistle-blower who acts even when he or she knows that it will cost them their job. Or those who voice their protest even when doing so could get them thrown in jail.

Villains are those who do something they know, or at least suspect, to be wrong, but invent reasons—excuses—for going ahead anyway, rationalizing to themselves and lying to others to justify their actions. Often they tell the lie so often and so vociferously that they come to believe it themselves.

As do, especially on a national or political level, those afflicted with "patriotism and naiveté," who become their apologists when others protest.

The lowest level in Danté's Inferno is reserved for those who, when they see evil being done, maintain a "colorless neutrality" and avoid "getting involved."

Don Firth