The silence of the good

“The worst thing is not the violence of the bad, it is the silence of the good.”  Director Ken Loach

History shows time and again that atrocities occur because people are silent.

Sometimes, speaking has a cost, including the cost of your life. If that is the case, silence might be prudent.

I watch as people around the world are unemployed, attacked mercilessly by targeted hate speech, imprisoned and charged for speaking.

It has always been the way.

It has also always been the way that when the few voices become the many, atrocities are no longer tolerated, and the perpetrators are held to account.

The silence of the good begets the world we have, where the most egregious crimes against the persecuted are happening in live stream.

If you believe in justice and equality for all, all being ALL, then do not be silent. 

Wilful silence is complicity. 

Published May 22nd 2026. Photo taken May 22nd 2021