The wicked's conviction is that everyone is secretly like them. It is also their greatest vulnerability. Unless they're right.

The state of the world reflects what we tolerate. The people who run things do so because they are allowed to, because enough of us accommodate them, because resistance is postponed until it becomes impractical. People who do bad things tend to believe the rest of us would do the same if given the chance, or at least that we will look away once objecting becomes inconvenient.

Harm advances through continuity. Meetings stay on calendars. Interviews stay booked. Statements get issued. Schedules get honored. The machinery of daily life keeps moving, and the movement becomes the justification. We tell ourselves that stopping would be irresponsible, that it would only make things worse, that there will be a better moment to address the underlying problem later.

Later rarely arrives.

We tend to picture democratic failure as loud and unmistakable--marches, slogans, a moment when everyone understands what is happening. It casts the rest of us as potential heroes in waiting. We imagine we will recognize the line when it is crossed and respond accordingly. History suggests otherwise. Lines are crossed gradually, and the people closest to........

© Arkansas Online