The Quiet Power of Equanimity in an Age of OutrageIn a time when public ethics seem non-existent, when corruption no longer hides its face, and political violence is becoming routine, equanimity may seem irrelevant—or worse, complicit. What kind of person stays calm in the face of injustice? Who, in their right mind, resists the pull toward righteous indignation when world leaders violate every essential norm of human decency? And yet, I’d like to suggest something quietly radical: that equanimity, rightly understood, is not passivity—but resistance. A deeper kind of resistance. One that refuses to be hijacked by the very forces it seeks to oppose. A few months ago, I met john a. powell at a backyard get-together. Given his position as Director of the Institute for Othering and Belonging and a prominent voice for equity, I expected our conversation—centered on funding cuts and DOJ investigations into colleagues at UC Berkeley—to be tinged with shared outrage. But John didn’t meet my indignation with more ire. He simply smiled—a true “Duchenne smile”—and said, “I just stick to my values.” That sentence has echoed in me ever since. It clarified something I had only been circling: that equanimity is an act of resistance, an assertion of dignity. It is the quiet refusal to be swept up in the emotional hyper-reactivity that so often masquerades as moral clarity. It is not indifference—it is passion tempered with wisdom. Not detachment—but perspective.
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