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What do the fires and smoke around Sydney, the volcano eruption in New Zealand that left at least eight people dead, and Bougainville’s vote for independence from Papua New Guinea all have in common?

During a long run yesterday, thinking about the Australia bureau’s stories over the past week, I began to see a theme running through them all: complacency.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines it as “a feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder.” Other dictionaries deliver even more scathing judgments, calling the complacent smug and unwilling to change even when confronting uncertain or dangerous situations.

But no matter how harsh the definition, there is no denying that complacency — “the great chewing complacency,” as Aesop put it — damages lives in ways that bring sadness and rage.