Indiference vs. Silence

Indifference vs. Silence

          How are these two connected?  What, if anything, do they have in common? When these two different words are spoken they are rarely used as synonyms. Rarely are they even thought of in the same context.  It is my hope that these two words would change the way we conduct ourselves on a daily basis.

          The dictionary definition for indifference means to lack interest or concern; unimportant.  The definition of silence means absence of any sound or noise, stillness, the state or fact of being silent. These two words do not equate to similar meanings, but they are uses synonymously to express two devastating moments in history.

In a letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he is saddened by the silence of the so called good people.  As he participated in many protests and actively tried to persuade men with any power to finally stop the emotional and physical abuses toward black men, women and children. During his endeavor he met people that he would not consider to be bad or evil, only silent.  He found that there were people around him that would not condone the suppression that blacks were suffering and yet they were silent to what was going on around him. In his letter to the clergymen at Birmingham he states “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but to the appalling silence of the good people.” (Goshgarian)

The silence that he was speaking of was actual silence but it also was symbolic of indifference in this specific case.  Those that sat in silence and watched while blacks were suppressed were in fact indifferent to their existence in general.  They simply made no sound, no noise, no uprising in regards to the injustices that fellow mankind were suffering. In the full sense of the term they were indifferent. 

In a speech made by a Holocaust survivor he spoke of indifference directly. He related the indifference to some of the people to the world to the silence that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of in his letter. There were people that knew what was happening and yet they still maintained commerce with Hitler. He equates indifference with silence when he states that “indifference elicits no response” (History Place), it provokes a silence. Both of these scenarios represent the ability of humanity to be inhumane.

I am always appalled by the fact that so many men were drawn into Hitler’s ideology and showed a complete indifference for life. To be able to separate families while knowing the fate of each man, woman and child is indifference at its most despicable state.  How a man could support such despicable acts on humanity is beyond my comprehension.  I cannot comprehend such depravity apart from an extreme case of indifference.

In the case of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the same is true but in a much different sense of the word.  Although I cannot personally imagine myself trying to enforce such laws as black only and whites only I do wonder what side I would be on in a place and time when the cultural norm was prejudice. Would I be indifferent to people because I had accepted what was always know?

Works Cited

Goshgarian, Gary. Exploring Language. New York: Pearson, 2010.

History Place. 2011. 25 February 2011 <http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm>.