Inaction

I've been thinking a lot recently about what matters.

I don't think that people have an obligation to make the world better. It sucks, but it is what it is -- most people have too much to lose or are too scared to act. Food on the table, a stable job, some level of recognition; silence is cheap, and I don't fault people for it.

I do think, though, that people have an obligation to not make the world worse. There is a difference between staying quiet and supporting oppression, and I'm a little disconcerted that a number of CMU students have comfortably chosen the latter.

What has changed over the past half-decade: the world, or my view of it? Back then, it felt like the world had a lot of well-meaning misguided energy, e.g. in hacktivism, but today that too has faded into obscure irrelevance. Now, it seems that we are bending the knee to salami tactics. Scenario one evolves into scenario two, and Piccadilly approaches..