Failure to Act

“Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.”

MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.5

In today’s entry in The Daily Stoic, the quote above from Marcus Aurelius reminds us that evil can easily come from what you don’t do.

You’re not required to do the right thing, of course. There’s nothing forcing you to do what’s right, or even to take action at all.

Just ignoring the problem and doing nothing, saying nothing — well that’s an option, and sadly there are many examples throughout human existence when people have done exactly that, and evil has thrived as a result. As author Holiday states: “All evil needs to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

In more clear-cut cases, which are called crimes of omission, there is a penalty to pay for failing to take action. But for the vast majority of mundane daily situations, that wouldn’t apply, and there’s no legal obligation to get involved.

Omission (law)
An omission is a failure to act, which generally attracts different legal consequences from positive conduct. In the criminal law, an omission will constitute

But do you have a moral obligation to do good? Is it sufficient to simply avoid evil acts — or do you have a duty to do what’s right, both pro-actively and consciously?

That’s the point made by Aurelius in today’s chapter, that we can’t be “on inactive duty”. We can’t be a spectator, that’s not an option. We have an obligation to add to the good in this world, and that requires active participation, daily.

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