Do Not Complain About a Problem You Have Made No Reasonable Attempt to Solve
To complain about a state of affairs without having made a reasonable attempt to address it is not merely weak, it is contemptible. It reveals a man dissatisfied not only with the thing itself, but with the fact that others have not yet corrected it for him. This is the posture of entitlement: grievance without cost, criticism without action. It is the public theatre of one who hopes to be credited with concern while remaining personally untouched by its burden.
The scope of this responsibility is total. It applies without exception, whether to domestic inconveniences or the collapse of nations. A complaint, once made, carries the weight of demand. And every demand implies obligation: the complainer must have acted, with reasonable effort, toward resolution. Perhaps there is no remedy, but then complaint is not merely futile – it is absurd. To wail against the inevitable is little more than an act of childishness.
One cannot take shelter beneath the subjective nature of ‘reasonableness’. Inaction is not excused by intent. It demands proportionate effort suited to one’s station. Reflection without consequence is vanity. The man who rails against the problem while quietly sustaining it plays both arsonist and fireman. His opposition is not moral – it is theatrical, and hypocritical.
He who complains but does not act becomes a passive accomplice. He has declared the thing intolerable, yet chosen to tolerate it. His inaction is not neutral – it is consent concealed by noise. His words and his conduct part ways, and in that separation lies the decay of moral authority. Let him be judged not by what he claims to hate, but by what he permits. For to denounce a thing in speech while preserving it in deed is not mere contradiction: it is the collapse of character.
