When Fear Turns a Society Mute

 

When people withdraw from protest out of fear, that fear no longer remains an individual’s private trembling. It slowly takes on a collective shape and settles heavily upon the chest of society. That society gradually becomes voiceless–mute.

This muteness begins with the instinct to protect oneself from the state’s bloodshot gaze. An individual convinces themselves that silence is a shield, that hiding behind it ensures safety. Over time, what once felt logical only to a single person becomes the accepted logic of an entire community: staying silent is the sensible choice.

As this mindset spreads from one to many, a convenient curtain falls over the injustices unfolding all around. The silent ones begin to think: “This is not my fight,” or “Why create enemies by protesting in hostile times? Better to stay quiet.” This attitude spreads like a domino effect. No one notices when morality is exiled. Those very voices that people once hoped would rise in protest become traders of profit and loss, abandoning the vulnerable who waited for them in their hour of crisis.

In this climate of silence, nothing remains clearly right or wrong; everything turns blurry, like fog. The language of society shifts–oppression is rebranded as “complexity,” persecution becomes “a misunderstanding between two sides,” and truth is dismissed as “exaggeration.”
People convince themselves that silence is wisdom. They know that silence is power’s most loyal companion. And because the injustice is not their personal battle, they stand beside it in a vow of muteness.

A society where more than a handful of conscious, thinking people do not stand tall as voices of protest becomes a society of the dead. And the dead can no longer be touched by questions of right or wrong.