What You Have Been Told About '' Silence'' ?

[Sifjar]

- Uncomfortable

- Painful and at times it's necessary


- If it's not then it's just a bliss, where no words are needed.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Silence is golden.

[Strengthandhonour]

"Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt"
Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain

[Engelbrecht]

My answer would depend on how you define silence.

Is it the absence of words, the absence of thoughts or the absence of all unnatural sounds in our environment?

Silence is a blessing in some situations and a nightmare in other.

But in our present situation, as a general principal, silence is to be preffered.

[Susi]

"Le silence n'est qu'un bruit constant"

[Exeter]

It depends on the situation. I don't trust smart-pants who pretend to not hear you. I've also noticed these often selfish and cheap persons are quick to criticice yet they rarely or never come up with something constructive.

[Savorgnan]

What have I been told about "Silence"? Nothing, except by myself. I think that is something that 68ers simply can't understand. I agree (like often) with Plethon, silence is very precious. Silence is Thinking's best friend. And Silence is a healthy insult to "our" mercantile society.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Exeter

It depends on the situation. I don't trust smart-pants who pretend to not hear you. I've also noticed these often selfish and cheap persons are quick to criticice yet they rarely or never come up with something constructive.

Who are they? I mean, these that you are talking about. Could you elaborate?

Originally Posted by Savorgnan

What have I been told about "Silence"? Nothing, except by myself. I think that is something that 68ers simply can't understand. I agree (like often) with Plethon, silence is very precious. Silence is Thinking's best friend. And Silence is a healthy insult to "our" mercantile society.

The whole modern "culture" (if it deseves to be called so) is an incessant noise, blathering about all and nothing.Talking about something utterly stupid is considered superior to the silence.

I often say that many ills of the modern society (especially that of the post-68, as Savorgnan said) are nothing else but degenerated and degraded forms of some great spiritual patterns and philosophies of the European past. That what is best, once when it gets corrupted, becomes the worst. It is a principle called corruptio optimi pessima. When the best one gets corrupted, it is the worst possible scenario. For example, Christianity, once deprived of its spiritual contents and belief in God, ushers in the modern shallow humanitarianism, liberalism (which can be also very cruel in some moments, nay, diabolical) and universalism. The vulgar version Platonism can be discerned in some modern "contests of beauty" (Miss Universum etc.)

The same goes for the Word. The essence of the European civilization was always word, the notion that most things can be expressed by speech. It goes back to Plato's dialogues, but also to the beginning of the John's Gospel. (In the beginning there was Word and Word was in God...) Christ is often called the incarnated Word of God (Logos). He spoke to his disciples, however, he did not speak much, he did not blather nonsense, but spoke in parables, uttered wise words... Saints spoke to the people. However, some monastic orders saw even the vrtue of silence. There must be some balance between these two extremes (I don't mean the golden mean though, it's too superficial).

Some Eastern cultures, unlike the European culture, value more silence, turning toward your inner self.

In more modern times, since the Enlightenment, you also have many new ideas, ideologies, philosophies, expressed in words and argued about in dispiutes and discussions, whether at public gatherings or at universities.

In the last 60 years (approximately) all of it got degraded and turned into an incessant noise, into babbling for the sake of babbling (with the houses of babbling called parliaments at the top, down to different TV shows). It would be about time to try to move the pendulum into the opposite direction.

[Señor Malo]

Silence is a very important and most underestimated thing.
Its important is in fact so deep that according to secret sources, Jean-Claude Van Damme expend's a lot of time phoning to his friends to talk about the "Silence"