George Orwell described an incident that occurred during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell wrote from the front lines that he saw a man from the opposing Fascist forces jump out of the trench and run along the parapet in full view. He presumably was carrying a message to an officer. The man was wearing a pair of ill-fitting trousers, which he held up with one hand as he ran. Orwell wrote, “I refrained from shooting him…I had come here to shoot at ‘fascists,’ but a man who is holding up his trousers isn’t a ‘fascist,’ he is visibly a fellow-creature, similar to yourself, and you don’t feel like shooting him.”

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