The Negative Effects of Complacency at a Societal Scale
Introduction
Contemporary society has an issue with large-scale complacency. In their daily lives, people more often than not, choose to ignore well-known problems they see around them. Instead, they choose to focus exclusively on what gives them immediate wealth, "joy", or distraction. Moreover, instead of critically thinking about and understanding the effects of their daily actions, people more often than not choose to follow what those around them are doing, thus causing negative information cascades. Most maladies of contemporary society can be directly attributed to these behaviour patterns. While I feel I could write an entire book on this topic with the amount of fury I feel towards it (which I may do one day), here I will try to make a brief and concise overview of the problem and offer some ideas for working towards a solution.
What is Societal Complacency?
Societal complacency is the collective act taken by the majority of a society to choose personal comforts over imminent known dangers to the present and/or future of their own society. Too often, people are living in the present with absolute disregard to the future at detriment to themselves and their children. While this behaviour has also been prevalent in the past (for example, in boomer-era America), I believe in the contemporary age where information of these dangers is so readily available that the behaviour is extremely inexcusable.
Examples
For those still unsure of what I am describing, I offer some modern examples of this behaviour:
Normalization of Surveillance Capitalism
The commodification of personal data has been normalized by society despite numerous heavily publicized warnings of infringement on personal privacy. Rather than distancing themselves from corporations which harvest user data without explicit consent, society as a whole has been flocking at the opportunity to revolve their lives around it instead. While this is obviously wrong, people participate anyways because for some reason they desire to follow the predominant herd mentality. At first this was almost understandable, as there weren't many viable options for alternatives to services provided by these corporations. However, in the past decade, numerous free and arguably better alternatives have been produced and are easily accessible (Linux, ActivityPub, Matrix, etc.). This makes participation in this subsystem of society actively harmful to the self and others via normalization; It is inexcusable.
Active Resistance Towards Greener Infrastructure
We need to change the way we build urban infrastructure to ways which promote greener and healthier transportation. If we don't, both our own future and the lives of future generations will certainly be difficult. However, because many view efforts which will make transportation of people and goods more ecologically viable as a threat to their comfort in the present, they actively resist positive change. From a sympathetic point of view, the practice of actively resisting one of the solutions to the displacement and destruction of both human communities and animal populations is obviously absolutely illogical. Unfortunately, society is not sympathetic and chooses to be complacent about these problems for their own gain. I personally find it both interesting and concerning that people would rather see others burn or become homeless than go through the mild inconvenience of living more densely, patiently, and getting the occasional exercise.
Mindless Consumption
This is a rather broad issue which ranges from the purchase of useless products to the consumption of media explicitly designed to garner attention and do nothing else. Yes, purchasing the occasional item of personal interest or watching content is generally okay, but I'm specifically talking about the problem of constant consumption. Rather than spending time learning, taking action, or producing genuine value, people instead spend the majority of their days purchasing items they will rarely use or consuming media which is devoid of valuable information en masse. Due to the normalization of this behaviour in society as a whole, people tend to mimic and participate readily as they completely ignore the many real issues and opportunities which surround them. The obsession with this mindless consumption makes those who are captive apathetic towards progress, conservancy, preservation, production, and more as no real world problems can realistically stop the regressive practice which nearly all have diverted their attention towards. The average person would rather comfortably consume than understand and produce, which has negatively impacts all of society.
Negative Impact
To put it simply, complacency negatively impacts everyone in every area, in every point in time; When that complacency is at a societal scale, the impacts are far reaching and profound. Societal complacency further exacerbates existing and known social, economic and environmental issues. Complacency perpetuates inequality, hinders the progression of civilization, and contributes to the erosion of thought. If the current trend of intentional apathy continues, we will rapidly regress into a dystopic age of unthinkable terror. The world simply does not manage itself; Action must be taken at an individual level for the trajectory of society to be corrected.
Individual Causes and Solutions
What has caused society to shift towards this mentality in the past decades? While I have no definitive answer, there are some obvious patterns which lead up to this behaviour at an individual level.
First and foremost, technological distractions are a primary driving force encouraging this behaviour. As detailed in the example of mindless consumption, large swathes of society have completely absorbed themselves in a loop of digital consumption which is unrelated to real issues. Due to the fact that so many of these people are spending almost all of their down-time distracting their brain, they are unable to take a moment to think about the impact of their own actions. I heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day, where many people explained that their best and most productive ideas come to them when they're bored doing absolutely nothing. These moments of absolute boredom are becoming rarer and rarer as society consumes a greater and greater amount of non-productive media. People have no choice but to be complacent when they are giving themselves no time to think otherwise. The primary solution to this particular issue would be to simply encourage people to spend less time on their devices and give their mind a break from constant consumption. People should also be encouraged to simply lie down and commit to an evaluation of self, looking introspectively at their own actions but also looking at how the actions of other might affect them. It is at these times I feel that people will make the right decisions for both themselves and society.
Another cause for societal complacency is the individual desire to become part of and conform to the rest of society. If society acts in a certain way it is almost certain that the majority of people will mimic the behaviour they see, even if they disagree with it, compounding the results of their actions. While this behaviour can occasionally have a positive effect, there are often situations where the negative effects of this behaviour are profound. You needn't look too distant into the past to see how evil ideologies were allowed to exist because of this mode of thought. However, what many seem to not realize due to their complacent behaviour, is that there are evil ideologies in the present as well. Liberty and quality of life for the average person is being infringed upon by neoconservativism, various corporations, overreaching authority, populism, normalization of destructive practices, and much more, but few take the time to truly think about what they do because it is the same everyone else is doing. This is a harder problem to solve, as becoming a member of a group is an inherent human desire. People will continue to attempt to fulfill the expectations of others so long as they want to be accepted, which I would like to think that for the majority of people, is forever. The only solution I can really offer is to encourage people to only seek approval from those who are mostly like-minded. This leaves enough room for criticism of poor thought patterns while allowing room for truly individual and constructive thought. The primary downside to this solution would be a greater potential of the creation of "echo-chambers" where people aren't challenged on their thoughts nearly enough. Due to this, I would also seek out the occasional conversation with peoples who are vastly different from oneself in terms of thought, ideology, or belief.
The final major cause is undoubtedly systemic issues stemming from institutions. The public education system in many nations prioritize conformity to social norms and wealth generation rather than critical thought and personal understanding of problems. Religious organizations often prohibit diversity of thought creating an environment where the status-quo goes unchallenged. Nearly all places of work exhibit a behaviour of ideological nepotism and control upon those who they employ, where dissenting opinions are discouraged and conformity is rewarded. Media and technology corporations algorithmically display to their users content which almost exclusively aligns with accepted societal norms, reinforcing the boundaries of what is considered "normal behaviour". These large institutions have substantial influence on reinforcing ideological norms, thus perpetuating complacency and inhibiting meaningful change. The solution to this problem is also difficult, as we cannot simply rid society of these institutions without absolutely radical options (which for me personally aren't off the table, but I realize this is unrealistic); We have to change what we can and live with the rest. As you work towards becoming less complacent, and hopefully others do as well, these institutions should change for the better. For now, people simply must try their best to commit to the act of non-participation towards these institutions if possible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, addressing complacency at a societal scale is paramount for the overall betterment of society. We should continue to stay proactive, informed, and engaged in addressing adversities which civilization faces. By making individual choices to help solve larger problems as well as resisting complacency, humanity can reverse the negative trajectory we find ourselves in and build a more sustainable, equitable, fair, just, and progressive society for both existing and future peoples.