Less Insouciance Please!!

Are you familiar with the word Insouciance?

It can be defined as a casual lack of concern or indifference. It’s not negative per se; in fact, insouciance can be seen as carefree and breezy.

However, I think, in certain contexts, insouciance can be detrimental and cause great harm.

The culture of the last decade has been defined by incredibly polarising social approaches to complex issues. How we treat race, gender, disability, and wealth creates divides.

It has created sides: us versus them, right or wrong, and woke versus bigoted.

There is, of course, a middle ground, a group of people not interested in being political, having no opinion on racism, or just not caring about the ‘trans issue’. This is the insouciant middle. The group that has decided not to care is easier than getting involved.

On paper, could this be okay? Better than Trump, the far right, the bad policies, the insidious rise of billionaires. Or is it?

I’d say to have principles - good or bad - means at least effort has been made to think about something. To think nothing, to feel no emotions in 2026, seems to be blunt, utterly stupid.

To throw your hands up and say, I just don’t care, I don’t want to get involved, it’s got nothing to do with me, is to me just as bad as the opinions of those who seek to harm marginalised folks.

To choose insouciance to social & moral issues in the unprecedented times we’re living in, is harmful and misguided. To choose to sit on the fence is to agree with harm caused; you might think I’m hyperbolic, but I’m not.

Insouciance in 2026 is complicity.

Insouciance in 2026 is causing harm.

Insouciance in 2026 is selfish.

If you’re here, reading or listening to my words, I’d love to think you’re not choosing insouciance. But if you think that you might have been, make 2026 the year you choose to care, to get involved, to make a difference to marginalised people.