Virtuousness is built out of lifelong habits of action and thought. We cannot collect virtuous behaviours like they are brownie points for us to redeem and bail us out from difficult situations.

Violence certainly is not a means to an end. But sometimes, good people do bad things and vice versa. They do bad things because of bad decisions they have made, or they might have been put in a situation out of their control.

In a hugely polarised society such as Hong Kong, especially now after months of anti-government protests, there is no clear-cut distinction between right and wrong. This makes it difficult for many people to take sides and rightly so.

This is because there needs to be people willing to stand their ground of neutrality and act as buffers to prevent the final nail in the coffin of dialogue and reasoning.

People who are against neutrality criticise those who take such a stance of having little or no strong opinion or using neutrality as a way of self-preservation.

However, by not choosing sides neutral people can act as a diplomatic bridge and keep the communication going, and give the two sides a neutral ground upon which to negotiate truces whenever an opportunity arises.

Even people with good intentions can sometimes be so consumed with anger that they lose their way. In the current political climate, there needs to be neutral forces to act as buffers to keep people with extreme stands from clashing, and find ways to encourage both sides to channel their anger into effective and constructive actions.

There shouldn’t be any more provocation to incite violence on either side and make them do more damage to our city, damage they will surely regret later.

Lots of families have fallen out over the ongoing anti-government protests because they hold opposing political viewpoints. I even heard of a woman contemplating a divorce because her husband is pro-establishment while she sympathises with the opposition.

Truth be told; not everything is black and white in this world. Like it or not, there are many grey areas. In any social or political conflict, black-and-white thinking is dangerous and could spell disaster. It can drive arguments that split society with little or no room for compromise, because it only accepts an all-or-nothing outcome.

This extreme attitude forbids the coming together of diverse views and various or even opposing approaches to achieve coexistence or any form of cohesiveness.

Unfortunately, the all-or-nothing approach seems to be the norm these days, and has become a common tactic or defence mechanism in the city.

It might do Hong Kong some good to take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book, which has adhered to a policy of armed neutrality in global affairs for centuries.

The tiny alpine nation’s non-interventionist stance has earned its unique place in world politics. Now it serves as a valuable buffer and contributes to stability in Europe as well as the international community.

The country has been active in providing humanitarian initiatives for decades, but remains fiercely politically neutral as demonstrated by its long-standing absence in military alliances and political unions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and the European Union.

Neutrality is not cowardice but an act of peace; think about it as a form of soft power or peaceful resistance to counter bellicose attitudes.

Now more than ever, we need to promote neutrality and resist “confirmation bias” that promotes the resistance of logic and reasons, and only interprets and accepts new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.

As a result, such bias will very likely further drive a wedge between Hongkongers and cause more disagreement and hostility.

For those who abhor violence, being unbiased and helping to promote neutrality is our hope to bring back peace to a city that once prided itself on being one of the safest in the world.

Meanwhile, if we paint people on both sides with the broad brush labelled “evil”, we will only surrender the opportunity to allow our fractured society to heal, and the offenders to rehabilitate.

Only by staying unbiased can Hongkongers see the complexity of the ongoing political and social chaos, and come to understand there are no black-and-white solutions.

The more we can accept both good and bad in the current situation, the more appropriately we can respond as society as a whole and remain intact.

Luisa Tam is a correspondent at the Post