## Colophon tags:: url:: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/ %% title:: What You Should Do type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@techdirt.com]] %% ## Notes > What You Should Do — [view in context](https://hyp.is/SaQWmPmHEe-cCQ_XwVzggw/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) ⬆️ date:: [[2025-03-05]] > What separates the merely clever from the genuinely courageous isn’t tactical brilliance but moral clarity—the willingness to act as if your conscience matters more than your comfort. The irony, which our enemies will never grasp, is that this apparent recklessness creates the most robust safety net imaginable. While they isolate themselves in gilded bunkers of power, we forge bonds of mutual aid that no authority can sever. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/angVcvmHEe-cLC-w9w25cg/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) > History doesn’t remember those who hedged their bets or preserved their options; it remembers those who, when facing the abyss, decided that some principles cannot be compromised regardless of consequence. This isn’t martyrdom—it’s the highest form of self-interest, recognizing that a life of calculated moral compromise isn’t worth protecting in the first place. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/byySMvmHEe-3rKd43BR2Ng/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) > from the be-yourself,-do-what-your-true-self-demands dept Tue, Mar 4th 2025 03:34pm - Mike Brock — [view in context](https://hyp.is/i35AjvmHEe-lzjM-59UYig/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) > The truth is, the question “what should we do?” often masks a deeper hesitation—a search for the perfect, risk-free action that will somehow satisfy both our conscience and our comfort. But that’s precisely the trap. There is no algorithm for moral action in immoral times. There is no checklist that, once completed, absolves you of the responsibility to keep acting, keep choosing, keep standing for something. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/MQpx-PmIEe-cDXfXVHu5Dg/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) > This isn’t about grand heroic gestures. It’s about the daily choice to be fully present in your own moral reality. It’s about deciding that, whatever comes, you’ll be able to face yourself in the mirror. It’s about recognizing that in times of systemic failure, the only reliable security comes not from institutions or financial reserves, but from the bonds we forge through authentic moral action and mutual aid. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/ccQM9PmIEe-18ncEcrdtbg/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/) > Then do that thing. Not once, not as a performance, but consistently. Not with an eye toward results, but with a commitment to process. Not because it will necessarily “work,” but because it’s the only thing that will allow you to recognize yourself when this is all over. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/e6_JQvmIEe-Y14tJNeYEKg/www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/what-you-should-do/)