Elia Kazanjoglous

[OnTheBounce]

It is much easier to judge another for acts that we might condemn than to stand in someone's shoes and consider what we might have done had we been there ourselves.

In all fairness, Kazan was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. On one hand he would have been grilled by HUAC who had the law on their side and could have locked him away -- since he had no real way of knowing how flimsy McCarthy's case was -- or on the other hand he could risk public wrath.

I'm pretty sure what most folks would do in that case, and it doesn't involve working out the intricacies of the Prisoner's Dilemma to make sure the fewest people possible get shafted. They're going to save themselves from jail.

That is, of course, a descriptive and not a normative statement. What he ought to have done would be another subject.

OTB

 

[quietfanatic]

He was blackmailed and took the other option from the crucible, lose your name to keep your (professional) life.

I wouldn't betray friends in that way but am my own person, and do not know the man's thoughts, circumstances and values, so I can't make a value judgement from a different time and place.