It's not just the big-ticket items we need to speak out against such as planetary extinction or war; the seemingly little issues are just as important because they can easily metastasise into existential crises.

We have voices - and never before have we had so many platforms on which to be heard. And yet, are we speaking out? In an era marked by fierce contestation and, in parts of the world, the advance of tyranny, the moral imperative to speak out has never been more urgent.

It's difficult taking a stand; it disrupts the cozy warmth of consensus, it puts the speaker's head above the parapet of the castle, an easy target for brickbats, bullets even, but rarely bouquets.

But speak out, we must. Pastor Martin Niemöller's post-war poem First They Came rings as true today as it did when he wrote it 79 years ago in the first year after the end of World War 2. He penned it in a bid to make sense of how the Nazis had come to power, purging their opponents, silencing dissent and ultimately orchestrating the Holocaust.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -because I...