If you watch this video narrated by Stephen Fry, you’ll hear the measured tones of Fry talking about the threats to life, all life, but never once mentioning where the threats are coming from. The nuclear threat, the deadly pathogens, the danger of AI, all come from above, from the powers that be. We’re not all in this together and Fry is informing us of the rising threats as if we are passive recipients of the menace imposed from above as an inevitability. He puts the onus on leaders to wake up and see what’s coming and to do something about it, when they are almost exclusively the problem. What about us, the great ignored? Isn’t that an even more pressing issue?
Bear in mind that it is always ordinary people who have to fight the wars, put out the forest fires, deal with every disaster. We are the dealers in consequences of the failures of power, ultimately paying with our lives, but we are never considered as the solution or thanked or rewarded for our inestimable contribution in dealing with the problems we had no part in creating but are fully expected to deal with.
Conspiracy of Kindness 