We are losing a key ally: Silence
By preserving time and space for ourselves and realizing the benefits of silence, we will communicate better with our inner world and others.
Where silence is, man is observed by silence. Silence looks at man more than man looks at silence. Man does not put silence to the test; silence puts man to the test.
From The World of Silence by Max Picard
The productivity gained during the internet era would give us more time with family, arts, and nature. However, this revolutionary change in our way of life ended up very differently.
From the thesis A Theory of Silence: a Phenomenon of Space, by Valida Baba, we quote:
The world that we are living in now is facing a continual evolutionary change. On the one hand, this change brings positive fruits of development for humankind on many levels: technological, scientific, cosmological, philosophical, and other fields. On the other hand, it limits humankind’s internal development. Yet, it is known that man has always been a part of a nature that would support the being’s internal growth, and the more they alienate themselves from it (nature) the more they would recede from their self. The contemporary world’s constant distractions with life allude to man seeking silence in any possible way through nature and retreats. Hence, both silence and noise become polarities of each other in a dualistic view of the world.
One finds a way to grow internally by being aware of everyday experiences and lessons.
Silence is also a way of communication. No one can describe that better than the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:
The study explores the specifics of silence at Ludwig Wittgenstein. The starting premise is that silence is a manifestation of intentional communication. If silence is intentional, however, quiet is always unintentional. Ludwig Wittgenstein discovers that reflective thinking can be expressed either by language or by silence. He develops the thesis of linguistic silence: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Linguistic Silence. By Ștefan Vlăduțescu
From Manifesto for Silence. Confronting the Politics and Culture of Noise. By Stuart Sim, we quote:
We live in an increasingly noisy society in which silence is a threatened phenomenon. Noise and silence are locked in conflict in contemporary existence, with noise pollution becoming a major problem in the developed world, one that encroaches on the life of nearly everyone in the West. It is a growing problem in the Third World too, with China’s seemingly inexorable industrial and technological advance rapidly bringing it into line with the West in this regard… Our culture is committed to such expansion, and the current enthusiasm for globalization can only make it worse: to export technology is also to export noise. On an international scale, noise is altering the environment for the worse.
Yet silence has played a crucial role in human history in such key areas of activity as religion and the arts, and its loss would seriously impoverish our lives. The ability to think, to reflect, and to create are all to a significant degree dependent on our being able to access silence and quiet on a regular, and reasonably predictable, basis, as is sleep, an absolute necessity of existence,…
In summary, silence is a medium for achieving internal growth, enjoying art, contemplating nature, and seizing the day. On the other hand, noise alters our peace of mind in an irreversible phenomenon in a global world.
By preserving time and space for ourselves and realizing the benefits of silence, we will communicate better with our inner world and others.
