What do you think...about the way standing silent can mean something? Do you buy that? How do you sort that out from apathy? Was this enough of a statement, from the citizens, to show they didn't agree with what they were being asked to go along with?
You argue two divergent stances here, the silence of apathy and the silence of rebellion. There is a third silence, the silence of fear. This is the silence that operated in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. This is the silence that all too often operates on the familial level in tribal Afghanistan. And often this is the silence that, when practiced long enough, leads to people practicing either the retreat of apathy or the activity of rebellion, often via violence.
People sat silently during kristallnacht, and because they did, there appeared to be support for the policies of the Nazi party. They sat silent while the ghettos were walled off, the freight trains were loaded and shipped off, and the work camps and killing camps operated - some very near metropolitan centers. Because of that history I vowed as a child that I would not sit back silently. I haven't and won't because it is just as dangerous to be silent as to be vocal. If I will be murdered, let it be for speaking out.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-10-09 12:27 am (UTC)You argue two divergent stances here, the silence of apathy and the silence of rebellion. There is a third silence, the silence of fear. This is the silence that operated in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. This is the silence that all too often operates on the familial level in tribal Afghanistan. And often this is the silence that, when practiced long enough, leads to people practicing either the retreat of apathy or the activity of rebellion, often via violence.
People sat silently during kristallnacht, and because they did, there appeared to be support for the policies of the Nazi party. They sat silent while the ghettos were walled off, the freight trains were loaded and shipped off, and the work camps and killing camps operated - some very near metropolitan centers. Because of that history I vowed as a child that I would not sit back silently. I haven't and won't because it is just as dangerous to be silent as to be vocal. If I will be murdered, let it be for speaking out.
- Erulisse (one L)