“He or she who hesitates is lost” sounded like a reasonable philosophy at first glance, but the Baudelaires could think of situations in which hesitating might be the best thing to do. Violet was glad she’d hesitated when she and her siblings were living with Aunt Josephine, otherwise she might never have realized the importance of the peppermints she found in her pocket. Klaus was glad he’d hesitated at Heimlich Hospital, otherwise he might never have thought of a way to disguise Sunny and himself as medical professionals so they could rescue Violet from having unnecessary surgery. And Sunny was glad she’d hesitated outside Count Olaf’s tent on Mount Fraught, otherwise she might never have overheard the name of the last safe place, which the Baudelaires still hoped to reach. But despite all these incidents in which hesitation had been very helpful, the children did not wish to adopt “He or she who does not hesitate is lost” as their personal philosophy, because a giant octopus might come along at any moment, particularly when the Baudelaires were on board a submarine, and the siblings would be very foolish to hesitate if the octopus were coming after them. Perhaps, the Baudelaires thought, the wisest personal philosophy concerning hesitation would be “Sometimes he or she should hesitate and sometimes he or she should not hesitate,” but this seemed far too long and vague to be much use on a plaque.
(- Lemony Snicket, The Grim Grotto)

There are a number of people in my life whom I respect greatly because of how they live. You could do a lot worse than to emulate their example. During conversations with these excellent people, I’ve noticed a common trend - most of them have said something like: “I was in this situation X where I witnessed an injustice, and I regret not speaking up when I had the chance.” Most of the major religious and philosophical traditions (or, at least, the good ones!) emphasise speaking up against injustice. And I think it’s fair to say that I, along with most of the people in my social networks, am strong, educated, confident, and privileged, which makes it all the more important to speak up against injustice if I have the opportunity.

On the other hand, there are situations where I - particularly as somebody who is still very young and quite immature - have spoken up about something without thinking it through, only to come to regret this later. I gather we all have this type of experience, which forms part of living in this dazzling but fast-moving, complicated, and overwhelming global society with a “brain designed to eat berries in a cave”.

This seems like a bit of a conundrum. If you think you’re witness an injustice or something amiss, sometimes you only have a brief window of opportunity to speak up before the situation progresses past the point where it is constructive to speak up.

How can we discern a situation of genuine injustice from a trivial non-issue? Perhaps a snappy but constructive vibe check could be to ask:

  1. Does my gut tell me that something is off here?
  2. Will the outcome of this situation matter in the grand scheme of things?

Then if my instincts for both of those questions is “yes”, speaking up might be a good idea.