The word complicit has been on my mind for some time. Recently, I attended Earth Words, where authors spoke about their nature writings. One stuck out from the rest, Immemorial, by Lauren Markham. Markham describes how she felt as she flew in a Boeing 777 over Greenland lamenting at the loss of glaciers, the irony not lost on her. She ponders the word complicit.
Embarrassingly, I had never thought much about the word and, until I did, might have used it interchangeably (and carelessly) with complacent. But these words are very different. Complacent is being satisfied with the current situation and unconcerned about changing it. Complicit is being associated with or participating in a questionable act or crime. Like flying over the melting glaciers you long to protect.
Another word/phrase that fits into this conversation is cognitive dissonance when you have conflicting beliefs or act out of alignment with your beliefs. Can you be complicit without having cognitive dissonance? I’ll have to think more about that because although I don’t like the idea of being complicit, I know the emotional toll of cognitive dissonance.
Writing Fiercely Feminine has brought these words into focus. I think about how I am complicit to gender biases when I use male pronouns for doctors, lawyers, and engineers, and female pronouns for nurses, teachers and flight attendants. And guess what? It always causes cognitive dissonance. I pledge to continue my contemplation of the word complicit and work on aligning my thoughts and actions with my beliefs. Where are you complicit, where are you complacent and do you recognize the feeling of cognitive dissonance? It’s worth contemplating.
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