Ever had a bee in your bonnet? Hopefully not, but I’m sure you know what it feels like to have a bee in your brain! Buzz, Buzz Buzz! The noise will not go away. There is a saying that has been ‘front of mind’ for me of late and it goes like this…’ For evil to triumph, it is enough that a few good men do nothing.’ With sexist content like that, it must have been written some time ago, and with that in mind, I did a Wiki search to come up with the following variations. The original is attributed (or mis-attributed ) to William Burke who was writing in the 1770’s.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for a few good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for some good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for all good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that enough good men do nothing
All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing
All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing
All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing
All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
The only thing needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing
The only thing needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
The only thing that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
The only thing that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that’s needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing
All that’s needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing
For evil to prosper all it needs is for good people to do nothing
All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing
All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good [wo]men to do nothing
The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for enough good men [and women] to do nothing
The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men (and women!) to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men (and women) do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (and women) do nothing
For evil to triumph it is necessary only that good men [and women] do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing
All that it takes for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing
All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing
The only thing that has to happen in this world for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men and women to do nothing
Evil thrives when good men do nothing
For evil to triumph good men need do nothing
For evil to triumph good men have to do nothing
The best way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
The surest way to assure the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
Evil will triumph so long as good men do nothing
It is necessary only for good men to say nothing for evil to triumph
It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph
For evil to triumph it is necessary for good men to do nothing
For evil to triumph it is sufficient for good men to do nothing
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing
All that is necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is required for evil to triumph over good is for good men to do nothing
Evil can triumph only if good men do nothing
The only thing evil men need to triumph is for good men to do nothing
The only thing for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men stand by and do nothing
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil was for good men to do nothing
The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
Evil prevails when good men do nothing

(selection extracted from Wikipedia)


Obviously over the last two and a half centuries, this saying has struck a chord with many people. It probably would have with most of humanity over the ages, if we just think about it. There are so many variations on the same theme that you might imagine you had been playing Chinese Whispers. When we look at the headlines in our newspapers each day, it is not hard to believe that we may have lost our way. Scams, conflict of interest, politicians setting a ‘price’ on access, deceptions, investment crashes, rules and more rules ‘for our protection’ can make us wonder where we are really headed. Perhaps ‘cocooning’ or ignoring what goes on unless it directly affects us, has gone too far, and it is time we started to become a little more observant and a lot more vocal about issues that are unethical and destructive to the fabric of our society.

It is easy to sit on our hands and do nothing. It is easy to zip up our mouths and say nothing. It is easy to shut our eyes and see nothing. The trouble is that in the end, we will BE nothing!

What issues have you talked about with friends, where you have said , “The Government should…” If they ‘should’, have you told anyone in Government? Have you written a letter, made a call, sent an email, made a personal appointment, written to the paper, contacted a TV station and so on, and then done it again and again until you got a response? Or have you let it go after a while.

How does seeing, doing and saying nothing affect us in our different life areas? What is the cost if we do take action? Has an issue in your life made you take a stand? What happened?
I am interested in your response and to hear your story of how you have taken positive action on an issue and have tried to make a difference.