Edmund Burke

When Good People Stand Silent, Evil Advances

Finally, outrage requires technique. Bystander-intervention models—popularized as the “5 Ds” (Direct, Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay)—equip people to act safely. Research on norm change echoes this: Paluck and Shepherd (PNAS, 2012) found that empowered “social referents” can shift peer behavior and reduce conflict. Meanwhile, Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas (2017) cautions that visibility without organization leads to “tactical freeze,” where movements stall. The practical lesson threads back to the aphorism: prepare in advance, act in small coordinated ways, and convert witness into will. In this way, ordinary people deny evil its easiest ally—our collective quiet. [...]

Fear’s Power to Paralyze Reason and Action

Yet history and literature also provide examples of individuals reclaiming their faculties by confronting fear. Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of courage not as the absence of fear, but the ability to persevere in spite of it. This return of agency affirms Burke’s point in reverse: when fear recedes, the mind regains its powers of reasoning and action, enabling progress both personal and collective. [...]

You Can Never Plan the Future by the Past - Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was an 18th-century Irish statesman, philosopher, and political theorist known for his reflections on the nature of society, government, and human behavior. His views often challenged conventional wisdom and promoted a thoughtful approach to governance. [...]