In keeping silent about evil
By: N. George
Worth Noting:
- In many rural areas especially where people live in their ancestral lands even where levels of economic development are low to an extent that some depend on relief food you will not find high crime rate.
- Comparing the slums and such underdeveloped rural areas you would realize that it is not income levels that are driving crime rate high rather it is the attitude of the residents.
- In those zones with high levels of crime rate the elder members of the society see no wrong committing crimes; the young ones just take it as a norm. During the extreme cases where there is no visitor to inconvenience it happens that the weaker members of the society are the ones who are terrorized.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations ……….. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn.
A Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle wrote Speech is silver; silence is golden where he tried to emphasize the importance of remaining silent rather than just speaking for the sake of being heard.
In whatever we do in life we have a lot of choices. Whenever confronted with conditions which have alternatives it is upon us to decide which option to take aware that in any choice that we make there are consequences. In a scenario where one can speak or remain mum, there are those who opt to keep silent rather than speak.
On case to case basis this may be beneficial or suicidal for example if you are in a meeting and you agree with all that was said and the convener of the meeting gives a room for any one with conflicting opinion to raise his point then you just remain silent it is interpreted as a sign that you have agreed with all that was said.
Not all silence is bad at times it signifies honour for example on 11th November 1918 the First World War came to an end having existed for more than 4 years since 28th July in 1914. In United Kingdom on 11th of November at 11:00 am every year thereafter they observe two minutes of silence in honour of those who lost their lives during this First World War.
In a different meeting and you are of contrary opinion to the speaker but you fail to have a concrete evidence to oppose whatever he has addressed you may decide that instead of embarrassing yourself by expressing disagreement with his recommendations yet providing no reason to support your behaviour better you remain silent take your time to research so that you can have an informed opinion to argue your case if need be.
If confronted by armed criminals it is prudent not to argue with them as this may lead to loss of life much as you do not agree with the conditions that they are subjecting you to. However, later on you should report this to the authorities who will ensure that justice has been served to you by bringing those who will be found culpable to book.
Such a brave act of reporting, trial and sentencing will act as a deterrent of such behaviours in the society.
A visit to many informal settlements like slums anywhere over the world you would witness high levels of crime rate. A look at those involved they are people across all the generations that is young, middle aged and old. If you randomly ask them the reason behind this they do not see it as a big deal as it is a norm to them.
In many rural areas especially where people live in their ancestral lands even where levels of economic development are low to an extent that some depend on relief food you will not find high crime rate.
Comparing the slums and such underdeveloped rural areas you would realize that it is not income levels that are driving crime rate high rather it is the attitude of the residents.
In those zones with high levels of crime rate the elder members of the society see no wrong committing crimes; the young ones just take it as a norm. During the extreme cases where there is no visitor to inconvenience it happens that the weaker members of the society are the ones who are terrorized.
As a parent you need to know that at a young age you can easily shape the attitude of your kids by teaching them the dos and don’ts of the society which they will easily adopt and normalize. However, if you let them get used to doing what is wrong it will be a hard task to retrain them on to do what is good as many of them will tend to take what is mostly done as a good thing.
In the bible book of 1 Samuel 25 we learn about Abigail who was Nabal’s wife when she learnt that his husband had repaid David’s goodness of protecting his servants when they were in wilderness with cruelty she did not remain silent rather she took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
Upon meeting David she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before him. David was pleased by her good judgement which spared him from bloodshed from avenge that he had planned on Nabal for repaying good with evil. Not keeping silence for Abigail saved her family from the attack by David and his servants. Observe silence only when it has better outcome than speaking.
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