Sometimes... silence speaks much more than words

Observer

17-05-2025

We talk too much. So many of us seem to need attention, so we speak what is in, or on, our minds, without having thought through, or processed sufficiently, speaking without thinking those thoughts.
Is it narcissism? Is it insecurity? Is it a lack of confidence? Or is it just the awkwardness of a gap in conversation, a quietness, that must be filled? Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote of our predilection for speaking 'impulsively' and usually about ourselves, as an obtuse 'means to conceal oneself,' not being mysterious, but to conceal the deepest version of our vulnerabilities, complexities and fears. His observations on the integrity of the human condition urge us to more introspective and reflective, to be more prepared for conversation.
Nietzsche believed we were all conceptually capable of 'doing,' but more importantly 'being' better and as he wrote in 1883, being superhuman in terms of the human ideal, to use his German, 'Übermensch.' as being able to relinquish those beliefs, traditions, customs and learnings that we just accept, of our predecessors, the best among us relinquishing all that, its comfort and safety, in the pursuit of a coterie of yet unimagined, limitless in every way values, characteristics and possibilities.
If we look at the most remarkable of achievements and achievers, in our lifetimes, we would perhaps find it difficult not to see some signs of this, in what we would see as sheer brilliance of thought and deed, think Marie Curie; Einstein; Ibn Sina; Galileo; Hypatia, da Vinci; Mozart; Michaelangelo; Pythagoras; Shakespeare; Turing; and the Wright Brothers, to name just a few, including a couple of 'super' women.
Perhaps Nietzsche would reflect with some satisfaction on the diversity of these more recent 'graduates' of his posited ideals, being physicist Marie Curie's cancer research against society's most malignant presence; shaking his head at the scope of aviation and space travel in the wake of the Wright Brother's pioneering of manned flight; the possibilities revealed in logician Turing's 'Enigma' discovery, revealing more can be attributed to science and mathematics than ever before and what about Orwell's 1984? Was he, or was he not, a genuine visionary, ahead of his time in stripping back our greed, our fears and our need for love? All of these 'greats,' may have been scientifically, literarily, and even insanely impatient, they rarely spoke without something meaningful to say.
Thanks to 'progress' and mobile phones, not only is ill-timed, ill-thought speaking and conversation ubiquitous in society, but more destructively, through Twitter, now X, with its tweets and retweets, SMS text messages, WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, SnapChat, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, BlueSky, Quora... even MailChimp!
The modern generation see something online and have this irrational urge to respond straight away, immediately, without thinking... either with excessive enthusiasm, or intense indignation and they must do it now! The problem is that so many of these immediate, ill-thought, ill-considered, knee-jerk responses, their need to be heard now, upon reflection, offer only regret at their haste. This generation does have good thoughts and valuable opinions, but must prove wiser and think first, then listen! Deliberation may look like lethargy, but is at the heart of wit, aptitude and intellect; and laughs loudest at the rampant vacuity of the asinine, the daft and the inept.
They are better than this! Even having reconsidered, our youth, maybe any youth at any time, finds it difficult to take a step back, let alone apologise, because being wrong is something many can accept, but few will admit to anyone other than themselves... and we worry that we don't understand them. We can see that most of today's youth, most of this generation, have enormous potential and real prospects and it is often only their impatience that is holding them back.
Bernie Taupin's profound lyrics in the chorus of Sir Elton John's 'Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word,' are so appropriate for today, yet, with a little more thought, we can avoid sadness, absurdity and... so much sorrow.
BLURB
The modern generation see something online and have this irrational urge to respond straight away, immediately, without thinking... either with excessive enthusiasm, or intense indignation and they must do it now!