Not Speaking Up

The South African cleric and activist, Desmond Tutu once said:

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

This sounds right, doesn’t it? Until you realize the truth of what this post says:

“If a quote could summarize the current political zeitgeist, especially on social media, it would be this one. Today, politics permeates virtually all aspects of our lives, and many people feel pressured to make public political statements.”

And:

“Mob justice, groupthink, and ill-conceived policy making are just as likely to be symptoms of a ‘silence is violence’ mentality as is the encouragement of good people to do the right thing.”

 

Instead, argue the authors, political neutrality should be a perfectly acceptable option. They cite two benefits of neutrality. First, jumping into a controversy where one doesn’t really understand the topic or its finer points can cause as much (or even more) damage than staying neutral. Besides, just because something is not good or right doesn’t mean any alternatives to it are better – some, or even all, could be worse options, either inherently or in their side-effects and unintended consequences. One can curse politics all one likes but:

“Politics is messy and it takes a serious investment of time and resources to determine the right course of action.”

And:

“Situations where what is intuitive is not what is right occur frequently in politics.”

If most people have neither the time nor the ability to perform such analysis, how is asking everyone to speak up or act the best course of action?

 

Second, if everyone takes a stance on everything, then by definition, everyone is polarized. After all, if everyone has an opinion on everything, they must believe they are right. How could they tolerate others with different (and by definition, wrong) opinions? Conversely, it is only the neutrals who can work with opposing factions because (1) they are open; and (2) the different factions don’t view them as opponents.

 

Which is why the authors say:

“Political neutrality has a role to play in reducing injustice… the world likely needs more thoughtful interventions and politically neutral spaces and less activism for activism's sake.”