The Banality Of Good
A book about why caring stopped changing anything — and how to design systems where it does.
The Banality of Good is currently in progress. Follow the book as it's written.
For occasional essays and updates — no more than monthly - or for rights or media enquiries, please click below.
The world seems to be falling to pieces. Do we still care?
Yes — overwhelmingly. Survey data, behavioural research, and the evidence of everyday life all show that commitments to fairness and the wellbeing of others remain widespread, across professions and political divides. The problem is not a collapse of values. It is that our values no longer seem to shape outcomes.
The Banality of Good argues that this is a design problem, but also a moral one. We blame individual leaders for failures that are fundamentally structural, then wait for another lone hero to fix what only redesigning the system can. Goodness is relegated to a private sentiment — but it has stopped operating as a governing force.
The book traces how this happened to citizens, to professionals, and to leaders; why disengagement is a rational response rather than apathy; and what a 21st-century social contract would need to look like if we want caring to matter again.
I'm writing it now. Sample essays appear on my Substack as the argument develops.