The Sayer and the Namer

I just finished reading a really good book called Agent Zigzag. It was an incredible true story about a double agent during WWII. He was an Englishman who was a career criminal, and through a series of events went to a prison that became occupied by the Nazis. I don't want to write a book review, but I do want to write about a particular aspect of the book.

The reason that Eddie Chapman (Agent Zigzag) initially agreed to become a Nazi spy against his native country was his indifference. He was not an angry person, didn't hate his country, didn't want to "even the score" for his imprisonment. He just didn't care, and the Nazi's offered a lot of money. That was all it took for him to betray his country. I'm not trying to say that Chapman was a bad man, because he came around and realized his indifference was killing innocent British people. This book made me realize the danger of indifference.

Obviously, I'm not going to become an Iraqi spy and betray my country, but what is it that I'm indifferent about that could be harmful to others or myself? I think that any emotion, whether it be love, hate, impatience, compassion, inaction or action is better than indifference. At least the subject is breached, despite your opinion. Indifference, however, is dangerous because you completely ignore the topic, make it insignificant, no matter how significant it really is. What are we as a country indifferent about that is harmful? These are tough questions, but ones that I think I need to ask myself.

On a more "book review" level, I highly recommend the book. If it wasn't a true story, I would say it was highly unrealistic. Seriously, this guy lived one crazy life! It got off-the-charts reviews on Booklist, but I was unsure about it because it deals with WWII. I'm not a huge war genre fan, but this was completely intriguing. Go read it, even if you're not a war buff it's good, but especially if you ARE a war buff you'll love it!