In the wake of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, New York Times writer David Brooks commented on our tendency to ignore our own sin as we notice the sins of others. For instance, Brooks notes that many commentators have contemptuously asked, "How could they have let this happen?" We assume that we would have done better than they did. But Brooks notes that the historical record shows how often ordinary people don't get involved in tragic or unjust situations (for example, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, street beatings in America). It happens so often that psychologists have a term for it—"the Bystander Effect."

Brooks writes, "In centuries past, people built moral systems that acknowledged this weakness. These systems emphasized our sinfulness. They reminded people of the evil within themselves." Unfortunately, according to Brooks, today "we live in a society oriented around our inner wonderfulness." So when something terrible happens, we always try to blame it on someone else.

Brooks warns that it's easy to vilify others from "the island of our own innocence." It's easy to ask, "How could they have let this happen?" But Brooks writes:

The proper question is: How can we ourselves overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive? …. [Sadly], it's a question this society has a hard time asking because the most seductive evasion is the one that leads us to deny the underside of our own nature.