I’m curious about people who say they don’t watch the news. When I ask why, the answers are usually the same: they don’t trust the source, or they find it too depressing.
I get it. There is genuine volatility on almost every front — fake news, deepfakes, and an enormous amount happening behind closed doors that never sees the light of day. But nothing improves when we disengage. When apathy takes hold, silence becomes the overarching sentiment in society — and history tells us, reliably and repeatedly, that bad things happen in silence.
We are fortunate to live in a democratic system. And yet so many people are turning away alienated, frustrated, and convinced they have no voice and no power to create change. I spoke yesterday with an American friend who said something that stayed with me: people on both sides of the political spectrum can see what is happening. They just aren’t doing anything about it.
I have been leaning on a quote by Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” It sounds like a cliche until you sit with it — and then it becomes a call to arms.
Standing up for what you believe in is often the harder path. But for those of us with a conscience, the alternative is worse. Adhering to the status quo out of fear is its own kind of suffering.
One of the paintings in my recent exhibition depicts a pair of Brahminy Kites soaring above the bay. I painted them with a Churchill quote in mind: “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” There will always be challenges and obstacles. But resistance, it turns out, is not the enemy of progress. It is the condition of it.
