SPIRAL OF SILENCE
From a presentation in my class
Silence; explanation about the spiral of silence. the phenomena of spiral of silence represent the contemporary society; where the popular opinions usually shuts out the minority opinions. We are most often surrounded by information that may be wrong or right, however, we accept some and reject others. The group talked about who are most often silenced; minorities like, First Nations, the African\African-American society, and many other groups. It surprise me when the group elaborate that knowledge like that of science is often silenced too. I wonder why knowledge, education, will be silenced but I realise that because we all want to stay relevant in the contemporary society, we all want to be accepted, there are competitions amongst us regarding the data and info put forth in the increasingly overwhelmed society. And if a new idea become relevant, the pre-existing one died. The death of old ideas bring about new ones, a reformed one leading to a reformed society. I think we tend to be silent about matters that are difficult to analyse, we tend to be silenced or silent about new opinions because we do not want our ideologies to be challenged or to be faltered.
The silence that causes the regression of some opinions, is also the silence or another form of it that calms and relax the mind. Silence is not a bad expression, it is the way that is been used that counts. If it is used in a good way, the result will be good, and if it is used in a negative way, negative is the outcome. I think a bad form of silence is fear, the fear of being negated. This is what I think happen in spiral of silence, the fear it created in minority, and the fear of the new opinion.
One last note, it must be understood that minority opinions are not exactly new, the opinions lack many supports, it lack normalization; and these make the opinions alien and so alienated.
Silence; explanation about the spiral of silence. the phenomena of spiral of silence represent the contemporary society; where the popular opinions usually shuts out the minority opinions. We are most often surrounded by information that may be wrong or right, however, we accept some and reject others. The group talked about who are most often silenced; minorities like, First Nations, the African\African-American society, and many other groups. It surprise me when the group elaborate that knowledge like that of science is often silenced too. I wonder why knowledge, education, will be silenced but I realise that because we all want to stay relevant in the contemporary society, we all want to be accepted, there are competitions amongst us regarding the data and info put forth in the increasingly overwhelmed society. And if a new idea become relevant, the pre-existing one died. The death of old ideas bring about new ones, a reformed one leading to a reformed society. I think we tend to be silent about matters that are difficult to analyse, we tend to be silenced or silent about new opinions because we do not want our ideologies to be challenged or to be faltered.
The silence that causes the regression of some opinions, is also the silence or another form of it that calms and relax the mind. Silence is not a bad expression, it is the way that is been used that counts. If it is used in a good way, the result will be good, and if it is used in a negative way, negative is the outcome. I think a bad form of silence is fear, the fear of being negated. This is what I think happen in spiral of silence, the fear it created in minority, and the fear of the new opinion.
One last note, it must be understood that minority opinions are not exactly new, the opinions lack many supports, it lack normalization; and these make the opinions alien and so alienated.
The spirals of silence you talked about is true, Everyone will be involved in it in different way. It is our understanding of what constitutes this spirals and how we handle it matters most. Everything that we do and don't do may constitutes silence. The most enduring thing was for us to try as much as possible to conquer silence and we can achieve this by being accommodating, approach things with open minds, be part of the solutions to spirals of silence and work with like minds to break the spirals of silence.
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