What it Means to be a Man VII: Non-Complicity

A quality which I think is almost never talked about (or at least never by this name) but I think ought to be with some regularity, is non-complicity. With the way the Western world works, I have got very good at telling myself white lies and turning blind eyes to all kinda or problems that I see around me, and I don’t think I am the only one. Sure, I can’t solve every single one of these problems, and I can’t emotionally invest in even a small fraction of them because I’ll burn myself out immediately, but that doesn’t mean I should instead ignore all of them, all the time. Falling into this habit of complicity feels easy, but it doesn’t feel good. Men should stand up for what they believe in; they should have hills to die on.

Having spoken about the hacker ethos yesterday, and Fat Mike the day before, today’s shining light of non-complicity comes from Jesus the punk ethos. The punk attitude of being vocal about what you see as wrong with the world around you, and refusing to compromise your beliefs or conform, is something I think should be embodied by all men. There is a huge need for social change now, but it still feels like it is largely met by a wave of apathy; imagine if we were all non-complicit, what kind of changes could we bring about then?