| |  I am not the best authority on the ability to remain silent, but as a way to "mediate the irreconcilable" it sounds either trite or vicious.
Silence is certainly preferable to:
idol gossip,
nervous chatter,
mindless slander,
public cell phone use,
unnecessary criticism,
irreverent boorishness,
a compulsive desire for attention,
speaking on that about which one is unqualified,
but it is never preferable to simply objecting to evil done in one's presence. Silence as a form of denial or evasion is certainly no virtue.
These are not Objectivist teachings per se. My Father attributes most of them to the Jesuits. Some so-called objectivists (especially on other lists) believe that one's highest purpose on Earth is to denounce whatever one can. I find that an unfortunate misapplication of Rand's sometimes over-emphasis on passing judgment. One needs always to be able to pass relevant judgment. One need not always seek out things to judge, or a forum within which to voice those judgments. I have argued elsewhere that in the cases of such things as PARC or Borat, it might be better to keep one's mouth shut rather than to waste air on petty matters.
Silence can show the power of self-restraint, and this is a great virtue to be able to exercise properly. Silence can also sometimes most eloquently express disapproval, in the right context.
The argument from silence is one of the worst of all vices. When Richard Dawkins claims never to have heard of Rand, but then removes listings from his website that are associated with her, or the Historian Nialll Ferguson lies on national television and replies to a questioner who asks him his opinion of Oriana Fallaci that he has never heard of "that person" they are committing unpardonable intellectual dishonesties.
A friend is a person with whom one can sit silently, an acquaintance is someone with whom one must avoid awkward silences.
Perhaps someone else has something else to say about silence? I am not one who finds it easy to refrain from speaking before an appreciative audience.
Ted Keer, 07 December, 2006, NYC
(Edited by Ted Keer
on 12/07, 6:10pm)
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Sometimes a conversation can be so enthralling that both people speak at once, end each other's sentences, and overlap. But in a deep and relaxed conversation with a true friend silence means acceptance without the need for proof or approval, a true consideration of what the other is saying, a desire to think and understand before one speaks - in other words - the desire not just to talk, but to communicate. Much also goes on non-verbally, a glance, a smile, a thoughtful distant gaze. This is very much a matter for the arts - drama and music and even comedy - and for documentary, since what silence can we convey to each other by the written word...
