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People, friends, and family – this is the moment. Tuath. Are you doing the work that is needed?
It doesn’t matter what change you’re worried about, what news cycle you’re following, or which crisis feels most urgent. The truth is, there are only three positions available right now.
No matter who you are. No matter what your background is. You’re in one of them. You’re choosing it every day, with your voice, your money, your silence, your energy.
So let’s break it down clearly. No fluff. No spiritual bypassing. Just the truth.
1. You Are Actively Supporting Harm
You are campaigning for them. Voting for them. Sharing their ideology. Quoting them in arguments. Buying their products. Following and reposting them on socials. Recommending them to others. Enabling them.
Who are they?
The Trumps and the Tates. The McGregors and the Musks. Those are the people you are standing with, when you say and do things that support them, their policies, their enterprises.
You are actively facilitating and contributing to oppressive systems such as:
- Colonialism
- Imperialism
- Eco-fascism
- Capitalism
- Patriarchy
- Racism
- Misogyny
- Xenophobia
- Transphobia
- Fascism
Etcetera. (Yes – we could go on.)
You might not realise it. Or maybe you do, and you just think your individual choices don’t matter. But they do.
The harm you’re helping to normalise is real. The people being hurt are real. You are standing in direct alignment with ideologies and structures that are destroying lives and ecosystems alike. You’re doing the work – THEIR work.
Let’s be clear: this is the wrong side of history.
2. You Are Actively Doing the Work
This means more than just having good intentions.
You are thinking and speaking and doing, to whatever levels which you are genuinely able for.
Specifically, you are doing the work with any or all of the following, along with whatever else comes up as things change so fast…
- Learning and thinking critically
- Broadening your awareness
- Listening to lived experiences that aren’t your own
- Voting and speaking out – not just when it affects you, but when it matters
- Supporting grassroots organisations with time, money, or visibility
- Building and contributing to healthy community
- Cultivating and integrating sovereignty in practical ways
- Starting mutual aid networks
- Creating content that helps and informs
- Holding space and offering real support to those on the front lines
- Writing letters, emails, making calls
- Staying informed about both sides of any issue
- Doing academic research, following multiple proven experts in areas you care about
- Examining your own biases
- Going to therapy
- Doing and teaching regulation techniques for mind and body
- Having difficult conversations with those you care about who are being misled
- Making your home, work, and social spaces unsafe for oppression to exist or grow.
You’re shutting down Transphobic, Queerphobic, Racist, Misogynistic ‘jokes’ and comments. You’re not pretending this is fine. You’re not pretending “it’s just banter.”
Because in any group of 10 men, statistically, one of them isn’t joking when they make those rape jokes. When they talk about underage girls. When they comment on violence. When they dismiss others’ pain and lived experiences.
This work isn’t easy. It’s not always comfortable. But you are doing it. This is what the world needs. Not perfection. Not performance. But consistent, messy, real engagement.
3. You Are Doing Nothing
Maybe you’re overwhelmed and just don’t want to think about any of this. The headlines are relentless. The conversations feel fraught. It all seems too big.
Maybe you think others are overreacting. You’ve said as much, shutting people down or ignoring them. Maybe you’ve dismissed the panic – “It’s not that bad,” you tell yourself.
Maybe things just feel… a bit more expensive. A bit more chaotic. But nothing that touches you directly.
You’re still relatively comfortable. So you just want to live in ‘peace’. Doing the work means nothing to you, unless it’s work your boss is paying you for.
You just want to:
- Watch your shows
- Have a few drinks
- Talk about football or fantasy smut or reality TV
- Take your walks
- Work your 9–5
- Rest on the weekends.
And all of that’s fine – in theory. But when you retreat into those comforts and stay there, while others are screaming for help, you’re not choosing peace. You’re choosing complicity.
Because doing nothing is a choice.
And that choice supports the systems that are actively causing the harm.
You are standing by. Letting it happen. Not doing the work.
History Is Watching You
Let’s not be subtle here, we don’t have the time left on the clock.
There are so many examples we could use to illustrate this moment. But let’s go with the one people understand best:
Nazi Germany.
There were three positions there too.
- Those who were the Nazis.
- Those who fought the Nazis.
- Those who stood by and did nothing – and let it happen.
Only one of those groups helped stop the Nazis.
The other two were the Nazis.
That’s not hyperbole. That’s history.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
– often attributed to the Irish philosopher Edmund Burke (it’s actually a paraphrase of his work, but the message stands).
So.
Comment 1, 2, or 3, for where you’re at right now on doing the work.
Which position are you choosing – today, and every day?
Not choosing? That’s choosing Position 3, while the world is burning. People are dying.
Choose better.
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2.
This is such a great summation! Saving & sharing.
I’m finally starting to understand how to focus and not do everything at once. I’m largely in the second category. But to be that person, I need to rest. Especially with disabilities and healthcare tied to my job. So sometimes I have to be 3. There are things I could do better re: 1 (mainly as a consumer), but overall I am not doing those harmful things. To be effective I also have to reject the leftist tendency to be perfect or exit, which reinforces a lot of patriarchal expectations and “purity.” So I’m doing better than my previous best all the time.
100%
Excellent blog post. I’ve not commented before, but I have to commend you.
I’m in group 2. I’ve always been politically active, but its never been more important than now. Society is at a crossroads, I truly believe it, and we must all choose which way we want it to go.
Well said!
2
2 – I am in the eye of the storm and there are many days I would like to keep my head down and lean into my inherent privilege as a white, straight-presenting woman. But now is the time for action. No choice IS a choice. But not a good one.
2 most definitely
It’s not easy, and I stumble sometimes, but I’d say I’m consistently showing up as a 2. And thank you so much at IPS for the work you to do encourage and support folks like me to keep showing up and doing the work, even if it’s a little bit at a time, even when it feels like it’s not helping. Doing the right thing always helps. Go raibh mile, mile maith agaibh.
2, and I don’t feel it’s enough. I’m so, so tired.
I’ve been doing 2!
Thank you for this post. It is so incredibly needed right now in the world!
Every day I’m praying for the guidance to keep me at 2 in my thought and actions. I deeply appreciate a blog post like this from spiritual guides because in all of this, I am seeking truth, wisdom and the discipline/skills required to aid in justice; I know these values too are held within Irish paganism, within the lessons from the deities themselves, and the points given here are truths that we all need to hear. Thank you for saying it so directly and keeping us right with humanity.
I think I’m somewhere between 2 and 3 if I’m being completely honest with myself here. I am doing what I can, but also resting when I can so I have the energy to fight when I need to. I have a medical issue rn that causes me to have panic attacks and is literally making my hair fall out. The stress of everything that’s happening overwhelms me constantly and so I have to be deliberate in how I expend my energy but also consume media that keeps me updated. Some of what is happening may affect my family, mostly my son, and the stress of waiting for that to happen makes my heart rate sky rocket.
So I think if I’m being honest about it, I’m a bit of both 2 and 3. I do 2 as much as I can, as much as I have the energy to while still taking care of myself and taking a step back when I feel my health is at risk. I don’t know if that puts me firmly in one category or the other, but I hope it still means something positive in the grand scheme this hellscape we are all trapped in.
I was relieved by how broad and realistic the criteria for #2 was. There are lots of ways that people can fight corruption without having to essentially martyr themselves for the cause. I get very drained being in polarized political spaces here in the States, and I hold views that can be seen as unorthodox and rejected by both sides, but I’m absolutely against what’s going on right now. I used to be very politically engaged – lobbying, serving in local party organizations, etc but it was such a toxic environment I couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t see a pathway forward through the discourse before people learn how to regulate and engage in difficult conversations without devolving into reactionary and violent communication. So I decided to focus on teaching people shadow work & healing wounded parts. That’s the work I’ve committed to and I never get tired of it.
Definitely 2. I have been 2 since my first protest in 1980 and I’m not stopping now – but I’m heartsick that I I still have to do this in my 60s. I never thought I would have to battle a psychopath in my final decades of life – but I am HERE FOR IT and I am relentless. I will not have my grandchildren live in a regime.
Thanks for this thoughtful, concise post. I’ll be sharing it with all the ‘bystanders’ I have the misfortune to know.
2, doing my best. Some weeks I do less, some weeks I do more. Community is vital, working for a better future is vital, this gives me hope in a better world. The inner work now is how to be involved in activism, remaining aware of what is going on without drowning in it. Activism keeps me from falling into despair, community provides mutual support. Using boycat app to make sure I’m not supporting companies complicit in genocide helps me live in integrity with my values. All of us are needed, in whatever way we can pitch in. However small. Together we are stronger and together we can and will dismantle these systems of oppression. Together we show the strength of solidarity!
2. Going back to school, getting therapy, getting my health in order, getting involved in my community, being intentional about when, where, and how I spend money; transitioning and living unapologetically.
I am altruistic by nature and love my land and the life it supports. I do not buy products that are harmful to self, others and all life forms. I am not racist, homophobic or in any way supportive of oppressive regimes. or those who promote it. I would rate as number 2 on the check list currently.
Definitely straddling the gap between 2 and 3 and constantly fighting myself about it.
On one hand i feel like im trying:
learning, incorporating, talking a little with friends/family/coworkers(which is difficult for me to do), doing what i can as far as being an informed voter
On the other:
Constantly overwhelmed and feeling stuck/frozen, self isolating, stuck in a guilt/shame cycle over what i’m actually doing or not doing (and if anything i am doing is enough), struggling with what my capacity is vs. What it “should” be and if its only a product of privelege or if my limits are real.
This post did get me to look up advance voting where i live, so at least there’s that
Thanks for this, Mx. O’Brien!
Some suggestions gleaned from my own bumbling efforts in the past few years:
Starting mutual aid groups and building community is a good place to start for people who are feeling overwhelmed or under-qualified. No special skill or experience needed!
If you don’t know where to start, look at the people you know. Offer to pick up some slack with childcare so someone can attend a protest or organizing meeting. Reach out to your local teaching hospital and arrange a community stop the bleed or CPR training — local libraries are excellent resources for connecting with people already out there doing the work.
Building community means interdependence. Many of us struggle with socialization that tells us we mustn’t need help or we will be left behind, but interdependence means accepting help as well as giving it. People want to help! Accept it whenever you can.