The Cost of Silence

I spent a lot of time studying evil. I know how it arises. It arises when good men hold their tongue. You don’t want that.Jordan B. Peterson

Abyss, chaos, pain, suffering, and evil surround us and are at our throats. The world is full of immorality and calamity. Through history the prevalence of this evil has ebbed and flowed. There have been better times, and there have been horrific times. The difference is whether those of us who are upward-aiming, and striving for morality, are willing to speak in the face of great evil.

There is plenty of evil to confront in this world and in our own lives. Whether consciously or subconsciously, every person will answer the question, “What am I willing to speak against?” Most people are crippled by fear in the face of the dark things of the world. But as my mother told me when I was young, “Speak truth even if your voice shakes.” The question is not whether you are afraid. It is what you are afraid of.

Many people will say that speaking when evil comes is not worth the risk — that it could cost you the comforts we hold so dear. What I strive to be able to say wholeheartedly is that I fear the personal and societal cost of not speaking more than the loss that can come from speech. The cost of silence is higher than the cost of speaking conviction and morality when evil rears its head. Good men’s silence costs everyone.

Evil has risen, and it continues to rise. Most people are silent. How can we not be silent? How do we start? We start by challenging the evil within each of us. We admit that we have the abyss in us. As we confront our own evil, we can begin to speak against the evil that is directly around us. Affect what you can affect. Eventually the realm of influence grows, and more evil can be confronted. If the good men and women are willing to risk their comfort and their blissful ignorance by speaking, evil will falter. Good can, will, and must overcome evil.