The Meek Follow Blindly

Russell Yorkshire
3 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Russell Yorkshire

January 27, 2026.

There’s being a lot in the news lately about 15 minute cities.

Let’s stop pretending this is about roads. This is about freedom draining away quietly — and all of us letting it happen.

No sirens. No soldiers. No big dramatic moment. Just cameras. Policies. Fines. Language games. And us… carrying on.

Going to work. Paying bills. Grumbling, scrolling, sighing — then doing nothing. That’s how it’s done now. Freedom doesn’t get taken. It gets managed. Re-labelled. Redefined into something you’re allowed rather than something you have.

You don’t wake up one day unfree. You wake up one day needing permission for things you never needed permission for before. Where you go. How often. When. Why. All justified. All reasonable. All for “the greater good”.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth no one wants to say out loud: They can only do this because we’re compliant enough to tolerate it.

Not evil. Not stupid. Just busy. Tired. Distracted. And I’m not pointing fingers — because I’m in it too. I still drive the routes they allow. I still pay the fines when they decide I’m wrong. I still mutter “this is bullshit” and then get on with my day. That’s the part that should scare us.

Because authoritarian systems don’t need villains. They need apathy. They need people who say: “What can you do?” “It doesn’t affect me.” “It’s only a small change.” Until small changes stack up into something permanent.

Look around. Surveillance is normal now. Restriction is normal. Punishment without human judgment is normal. Being told “you misunderstood” when you object is normal.

And the most dangerous phrase in the country has become: “If you’ve done nothing wrong…”

That sentence is the gateway drug. Because once you accept that logic, freedom stops being a right and becomes a reward for obedience.

And here’s the bleak bit: By the time enough people realise what’s been lost, it’s usually already embedded, automated, and irreversible. Not because anyone stopped us — but because we never really tried to stop it.

No hero moment. No uprising. Just a slow, quiet shrinking of the space we’re allowed to exist in. So no — this isn’t a rant. It’s a warning.

Because history doesn’t remember the people who meant to do something. It remembers the people who noticed… and still carried on anyway.

And if that makes you uncomfortable? Good.

It should.

Image - Beata Dudová