From “We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence” by David Dark
If the price of admission within my peer group is the frequent suppression of my own conscience, I wish to assert that the price is too high.
“It’s always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in … It’s always easiest to let yourself be governed.” That’s Ursula K. Le Guin’s character Bedap naming the appeal of the bystander effect and the moral challenge of self-governance in one short passage. Thinking and acting critically and independently, assuming responsibility for our own imaginations, our own sayings and doings, can feel too burdensome, too triggering, and too costly. Playing along to get along can feel easier, but it’s no way to live. We become what we cave to. We must be very careful about what we cave to.