Complacency: the Blameless | Archetypical Philosophies 2
a Short Essay for the Modern Existentialist
1 | Complacency: To Remain Blameless
When we are young, we see the world in stark black and white—as a simple and absolute binary. There are children and adults, sheep and shepherds—the Innocent, and the Wise. There are those who stand and fight to defend what’s Good and Right—those who protect… and those who are protected.
As we grow and learn, however, we begin to realize that those who are protected are expected one day to become protectors themselves. We come to understand that, one day, every Child is expected to grow up—to rise against danger and overcome any challenge which would come to threaten their wall. And, as the reality of this situation begins to crystallize, we are left with two simple choices—two ways of thinking with which we might press on.
We can choose to rise and embrace this destiny—to embrace the Agency implicit in growing; the power to effect and change our world in the way which we see fit. Or, we can choose to cower away and deny it—to reject the fact that we’ve grown older, taller—stronger… and must now work and act in our own self-interest if we hope to continue to survive.
The Complacent man is this second man: he who believes that Innocence is freedom—that the Child’s freedom from responsibility is what constitutes the ultimate liberation of the self.
And so, believing that it’s right, normal, and Good for people to remain as Children—that man should strive to become and remain Child, and to deny his own power; his ability to exert his Agency—the Complacent is the one who believes that there are two kinds of people in this world:
The meek, and the wicked.
There are those in the world who are Blameless and Innocent—who choose to live out their lives in humble passivity, and to risk doing no wrong by doing nothing at all. And then, there are those who are baleful and greedy—who choose to use their power and Agency in order to change the world; and, in the process, destroying the old to create the new, and bringing that wall crashing down.
2 | Onward
Eden is the home of the Innocent and the Blameless—the two most threatened by that crumbling wall. And what could this Blameless, Complacent man do in the face of the annihilation of his home… but rise to embrace his Agency, and to become the very thing which he hates most?
When wickedness pounds against the stones… the meek have no choice but to rise.
That is what the Complacent believes.
Philosophy: a mindset. An attitude. The way that a person chooses to see the world, and therefore to approach living their life.
Αρχή | archí: origin
Τύπος | týpos: form
An Archetypical Philosophy is the bare-bones, logical basis of a person’s mindset or attitude, inferred from observation of the way in which they choose to live their life.