TOTW: Silence

just shut the fuck up
why all these words hoping to spark "conversation" as if such a thing were possible? be quiet for once

Tinnitus,,,,,,,,,,s, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s,,,,,,, ,,,,,s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,stfu,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,s ,,,,,,STFU!,,,,,,,,,,, s,,,,,,,,,,s,,,,,,,,,"don't focus on it brah!,,,,,,s,,, ,, ,,,, s,,,, ,, s , , *phew *

so, it behooves us, from the start, to ask what did 'silence is golden' mean when it was first coined? how has this meaning evolved and why does the prompt assert strenuously that it is true? true in what way? just because capitalists can bottle it & sell it?

and, which silence is the prompt actually asking about? the silence of nature? or the silence of not speaking up for friends / self / political positions / etc.? or some other silence? the silence of silence = death is not the silence Zerzan rightfully mourns.

i mean, what is your actual question?

In the naked light I saw maybe ten thousand people (maybe more?) talking without speaking and hearing without listening and some people were writing songs that they never dared share as if they were disturbed by the sound of silence.

I said, "Fools! Y'all fucks do not know that Silence grows like a cancer? Hear my words so that I might teach you or take my arms so that I might reach you!" But I realize my words will probably just fall like silent raindrops and echo in the wells of silence.

So I whistled for a cab and when it came near, the license plate said 'Fresh' and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare, but I thought "Nah, forget it, yo, Holmes, to Bel-Air!"

as i get older, my hearing is starting to slowly go. i wish it would hurry the fuck up so i can stop listening to the mass stupidity.

No hay maestros—and yet, we are ruled by moderators. Il n'est pas de oligarchie! This is all... a techno-authoritarian distraction. No hay maestros! and yet we cower to the mods. If we want to make comments...

was doing the dishes thinking about this and i'd say that silence, or at least quiet, is a central part of my survival routine, and a useful part of the way i engage day to day with people i actually want to engage with. it doesnt feel "lost" or whatever to me at all, it is probably the single most operative part of the way i choose to be most of the time. occasionally i find times to talk a lot as i like to, usually im either listening or i'm refusing to engage with whatever the patter or noise is.

but tonight the theme in my household is another acquaintance we had hoped to reconnect with is dead. and i'm less mourning than thinking, the self-sufficiency i've chosen means a kind of silence between myself and too many people i wish i might have known who are now gone. and that doesnt seem to be in short supply at all. so i wonder, is the silence being gestured at here any less calculating as an end and myopic as a means than the activist thing apparently being critiqued? how many people has my "strategic silence," regardless of what i write online in spaces i feel fine spouting off in because everyone seems to agree are bullshit, prevented me from saying anything past pleasantries to? tonight, i feel ashamed. no doubt after a steady look or listen into nothing tonight or tomorrow i'll feel fine about it. as the prompt notes, there is a therapeutic quality to that kind of exercise

My SCREAMING has DESTROYED THE CAPITALIST HEGEMONY. NoooOoo Simon and Garfunkel for ME! I thrash METAL chords and I SPIT on the graffiti on subway walls, I emit a rebel YELLLLLLL! I RANT and gyre and gimble at the SILENT WALLS!!!!

it is said, better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

on the other hand, a journey through the major arcana begins with the fool.

as Ursula K LeGuin's interpretation puts it:

The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.

But, as Katagiri says, You have to say something. If you don't speak, nobody will understand.

this is all about the Silence that is golden.

there is also the silence that is a toxic cesspool of resentment, anger, fear & loathing, and grasping.
as UKLG further interprets,

So, the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.

there are the things about which we cannot speak. and there are the things about which we must speak.

the trick is to know which witch is which.

can someone tell me a story about straight edge hardliners?

Sorry, silence contradicts my main interest in anarchism, which is using it to show off how radical and badass I am

I've never experienced silence. Silence can only occur in a perfect vacuum and a perfect vacuum would be nothingness, but a perfect vacuum doesn't exist anywhere. It's theoretically possible to exist. There is no paradox

I'm a revolutionary screamer in street protests, but at home I'm a pondering malcontent with severe tinnitus from having activist hacks screaming through mega-phones just inches FROM MY FUCKING HEAD!

I think of silence/noise as more than just the presence and absence of sounds and more of a metaphor for being in the present moment or caught in distraction/anxiety.

In the first few months of practicing silent meditation, I became aware of how my mind constantly chatters. Even though I was sitting silently, my mind couldn’t stop listing chores, scheduling responsibilities, and writing grocery lists. Until I stopped to listen, I had no idea how profoundly loud my mind actually is.

Then something incredible happened. After a lot more practice, I noticed that the chattering stopped and the real silence began. First, for only a few seconds at a time, and then for minutes, my mind was completely still and silent. Through the silence, I was able to access the most incredible sensation of connectedness with the unending physical world around me. It’s a feeling that I can only access by overcoming mental noise and offers a different way of experiencing being alive.