HAVE SILENCE OR SINCERITY - NOT SLANDER
A look at the three Ss, silence in International Relations.
HAVE SILENCE OR SINCERITY - NOT SLANDER
How is it that our kindergarten learning didn’t necessarily occur,
And in Trump is someone devoid of any lesson which is in this verse,
Very little can be done in these times when they are on the loose,
Each day that goes by with cringeworthy words spewed forth.
Silence, we really only need this from our fascistic foes,
Indeed, only a little silence with open ears could only help,
Liberty of our speech is allowed right now; and suffer we do,
Even if Trump was a little more discreet his game would be less known,
Now his ploys are out in the open, yet some cling onto him,
Certainly his loose lips have sunk many a nasty, corrupted ship,
Each moment he draws attention to himself only tells us more.
Of the concept of sincerity, it’s been dead and dried up a long time,
Republican sincerity is an entirely different animal altogether.
So some 30,000+ falsehoods over four years has sunken sincerity,
Indeed, this fact should have destroyed this one in the real world,
Now the gullible only want to stay gullible regardless; it seems,
Can’t we agree that grab them by the *ussy was Trump’s sincerity,
Each of us with an open mind seems to be able to judge sincerity,
Remember - none of it has ever been exactly rocket science,
Indeed, Biden’s sincerity is his superpower, yet it’s attacked,
Trump’s conning shouldn’t be up to any dispute most likely,
Yet it seems that many forget or forgive or just never think.
- But-Silence does not always mark wisdom. -S.T. Coleridge.
Now it seems that most effort is now squarely in political slander,
Oh so much detail about Hunter Biden; looking for any thread,
Truly the waters are only continuing to be stirred by its mud.
So Rudy, Donald, and Alex have all paid for slandering so far,
Likely it’s still only part of their business plans going forward,
And the depth of the bullshit now is up to the top of the overshoes,
Now who really knows if all the lying will taper off after Trump,
Democracy is almost drowning in deep horseshit nowadays,
Even though we still have some truth - it’s under direct assault,
Religious (so called) peoples’ slander is probably the bottom, the nadir.
“Silence does not always mark wisdom.”
— S.T. Coleridge.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He also shared volumes and collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking cultures. Coleridge coined many familiar words and phrases, including "suspension of disbelief".
“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an "honest man."
—Washington.
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American Founding Father, military officer, and politician who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted and ratified the Constitution of the United States and established the U.S. federal government. Washington has thus become commonly known as the "Father of his Country".
Slander is a poison which extinguishes charity, both in the slanderer and in the person who listens to it; so that a single calumny may prove fatal to an infinite number of souls; since it kills not only those who circulate it, but also all those who do not reject it.
— St . Bernard.
Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. (Latin: Bernardus Claraevallensis; 1090 – 20 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through the nascent Cistercian Order. The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Second Crusade he had preached, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him. Bernard considered it his duty to send an apology to the Pope and it is inserted in the second part of his "Book of Considerations". There he explains how the sins of the crusaders were the cause of their misfortune and failures.
To continue on this particular path some more applicable quotes on Silence, Sincerity and Slander from the way back machine.
Silence.—
“Be silent, or say something better than silence.”
— Pythagoras.
Pythagoras of Samos (c.570 – c. 495 BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle. This lifestyle entailed a number of dietary prohibitions, traditionally said to have included aspects of vegetarianism.
“Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself.”
— La Rochefoucauld.
François de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was an accomplished French moralist of the era of French Classical literature and author of Maximes and Memoirs, the only two works of his dense literary œuvre published. His Maximes portrays the callous nature of human conduct, with a cynical attitude towards putative virtue and avowals of affection, friendship, love, and loyalty. Leonard Tancock regards Maximes as "one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature", with his "experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites ... crystallized into absolute truths."
“If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.”
— Quarles.
Benjamin Arthur Quarles (January 23, 1904 – November 16, 1996) was an American historian, administrator, educator, and writer, whose scholarship centered on black American social and political history. Major books by Quarles include The Negro in the Civil War (1953), The Negro in the American Revolution (1961), Lincoln and the Negro (1962), and Black Abolitionists (1969). He demonstrated that blacks were active participants in major conflicts and issues of American history. His books were narrative accounts of critical wartime periods that focused on how blacks interacted with their white allies and emphasized blacks' acting as vital agents of change rather than receiving favors from whites.
“As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.”
— Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath, a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general.
“Silence is a virtue in those who are deficient in understanding.”
— Bouhours.
Dominique Bouhours (15 May 1628 – 27 May 1702) was a French Jesuit priest, essayist, grammarian, and neo-classical critic. He was born and died in Paris. Bouhours entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and was appointed to read lectures on literature in the Collège de Clermont at Paris, and on rhetoric at Tours and Rouen. He afterwards became private tutor to the two sons of Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville.
“Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.”
— Bovee.
Christian Nestell Bovee (February 22, 1820 – January 18, 1904) was an epigrammatic New York City writer. It was reported that Bovee "enjoyed the intimate friendship of Washington Irving, Longfellow, Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes and of all the brilliant men who composed at that time the Saturday Evening Club of Boston".
“Silence does not always mark wisdom.”
— S.T. Coleridge.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He also shared volumes and collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd.
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.”
— Proverbs 17:28.
The Holy Prophet Mohammad said “If a person is given silence, he is given wisdom”, the tongue is a great temptation, and learning how to control it is an enormous discipline. Whenever the Holy Prophet (saw) spoke, he always spoke the truth, even in levity. He disliked verbosity and cautioned His companions about talking needlessly.
The dictionary defines silence as being the absence of noise. Not so the Torah. The Torah defines silence as being the key to a positive and healthy relationship with G-d and oneself. Shavuot is the gateway to an existence above and beyond sound. Shavuot, the day the Torah was given, is the day when we can choose the nature of our hearts. Whether they will remain impervious and unresponsive to the silence. Dormant and rocklike. Or if our hearts will serve as the spiritual center of our being. Shavuot is the day that we decide if our hearts are going to listen to the silence and unite together with G-d in genuine celebration.
Sincerity.—
“I think you will find that people who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those who try to be "consistent."
— Holmes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to his work as an author and poet, Holmes also served as a physician, professor, lecturer, inventor, and, although he never practiced it, he received formal training in law.
“If the show of any thing be good for any thing, I am sure sincerity is better; for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to?”
— Tillotson.
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694. He was a man of the world as well as a divine, and in his sermons, he exhibited a tact which enabled him at once to win the ear of his audience.
“The only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is that he gives himself for a principle. Words, money, all things else, are comparatively easy to give away; but when a man makes a gift of his daily life and practice, it is plain that the truth, whatever it may be, has taken possession of him.”
— Lowell.
James Russell Lowell (February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that rivaled the popularity of British poets. These writers usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside.
“Private sincerity is a public welfare.”
— Bartol.
Cyrus Augustus Bartol (April 30, 1813 – December 16, 1900) was a Unitarian pastor, author, and hymnist. Bartol was interested in Transcendentalism and was influential in the movement in Boston. However, he was described as remaining "staunchly independent of sectarian creed and label" and although he was involved with Unitarian, Transcendentalist, and free religious movements, he was "never totally of [them.]" Other clergyman, authors, and philosophers such as Henry W. Bellows, Frederic H. Hedge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Collyer, Margaret Fuller, and George Ripley frequented his home.
“Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions of friendship.”
— Longfellow.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Song of Hiawatha", and "Evangeline". He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.
Slander.—
“When will talkers refrain from evil-speaking? When listeners refrain from evil-hearing.”
— Hare.
Robert Hare (January 17, 1781 – May 15, 1858) was an early American chemist and professor. In 1853, Hare conducted experiments with mediums. A year later Hare had converted to Spiritualism and wrote several books that made him very famous in the United States as a Spiritualist. He published a book entitled Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations (1855). His work was criticized by scientists but was welcomed with enthusiasm by Spiritualists.
“Never throw mud. You may miss your mark, but you must have dirty hands.”
— Joseph Parker.
Joseph Parker (9 April 1830 – 28 November 1902) was an English Congregational minister. Dr Parker was twice chairman of the London Congregational Board and twice of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In 1887 he visited the United States, where he delivered a eulogy on Henry Ward Beecher, with whom he had been on very intimate terms.
“Remember, when incited to slander, that it is only he among you who is without sin that may cast the first stone.”
— Hosea Ballou.
Hosea Ballou D.D. (April 30, 1771 – June 7, 1852) was an American Universalist clergyman and theological writer. Originally a Baptist, he converted to Universalism in 1789. He preached in a number of towns in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. From 1817, he was pastor of the Second Universalist Church of Boston. He wrote a number of influential theological works, as well as hymns, essays and sermons, and edited two Universalist journals. Ballou has been called one of the fathers of American Universalism.
Nor do they trust their tongues alone,
But speak a language of their own;
Can read a nod, a shrug, a look,
Far better than a printed book;
Convey a libel in a frown,
And wink a reputation down;
Or, by the tossing of the fan,
describe the lady and the man.
—Swift.
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".
“Those men who carry about and who listen to accusations, should all be hanged, if so it could be at my decision—the carriers by their tongues, the listeners by their ears.”
— Plautus.
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andronicus, the innovator of Latin literature. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.
I came across an article in International Relations on the use of silence. I’m including a little bit of the introductory information only to better define silence. I thought it interesting enough to include the general information. This might stimulate some thought in how silence is used or forced upon others. Considering silence in the age of Trump seems to have some importance. We could all wish he would practice this art more, but that is only a pipe dream on my part.
Researching Silence: A Methodological Inquiry
Elisabeth Schweiger
@EliSchweig
Elisabeth.Schweiger@york.ac.uk and
Kerstin Tomiak
First published online January 4, 2023
Approaching Silence
A range of scholarship in different fields of social sciences has raised the importance of studying silence and has engaged with the questions silence poses. Rather than seeing silence as the opposite of speech and communication, it has been argued that silence can be eloquent or conversational. To categorise silence, scholars have developed typologies; Ephratt, for example, distinguishes between stillness (e.g. when asleep), pause (e.g. planning what to say next), silencing (e.g. censorship) and eloquent silence (a deliberate, communicative act).
Shifting away from the idea that silence has an inherent substance that can be ontologically grasped as opposed to speech, pragmatic approaches have suggested that we need to analyse more practically the communicative functions that silence can gain. We build on this idea and move away from the ontological preoccupation with what silence is, instead understanding ‘silence as doing’.
The significance of different functions of silence has been studied in a wide range of fields in social sciences. Researchers have looked at the role of silence as acquiescence in international law, its performative role in social situations, silence as resistance in political discourses or silence as concealment by politicians. In IR [International Relations], silence has often been studied as an outcome of exclusion and silencing. Feminist and critical race scholarship have done much work to investigate how certain voices and issues are marginalised in discourses. These marginalisations and exclusions happen through highly institutionalised processes as well as in daily encounters. They can encompass topics within a society, like taboos, or can be linked to the exclusion of particular bodies and voices who are not recognised as speaking subjects.
As we will discuss in the final section, the way in which silence is often interpreted, as either exclusion of marginalised actors or an intentional act by powerful actors, problematically depends on our own assumptions regarding who can be expected to speak. It is important to recognise that silence is ambiguous and always linked to the assumptions of the listeners and interpreters, which can be based on a variety of personality, experience, educational background, or culture. Silence, as de Behar puts it, always reflects the ‘horizon of expectations’ of the interpreter; with this, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on our assumptions as researchers. Scholars in varying disciplines have discussed the epistemological opportunity that silence, absence, and nothing presents. Scholars have engaged with the question of what counts as significant in the first place and the need for reflexivity for the interpretation of silence.
Some scholars have directly addressed the relationship between silence as absence and exclusion on the one hand and silence as a communicative act on the other hand. Different contextual parameters can help to determine whether silence gains communicative functions within a discourse or remains a ‘mere absence’. The intentionality of silence has thus often been noted as a crucial factor in determining the eloquence of silence. The unsaid also needs to be perceived as relevant within a particular discursive situation. This is linked to the intersubjective dynamics of communicative silence, which hinges on the expectation of speech by the listeners. While building on these frameworks, our article is less focused on the categorisation or definition of silence.
In regards to the co-author of this paper Elisabeth Schweiger made an interesting post on Twitter (X) some time back. I thought it interesting enough to post.
As is my practice, a final verse, in the general sonnet layout, trying to tie a bow on this whole endeavor.
November’s Coming Black Sky
Silence, Sincerity and Slander with us,
Kindergarten learning for most of us peeps,
Yet we are besieged by American creeps,
It is too toxic now to even discuss,
Seems no amount of patience helps thus,
In his slanderous words makes acceptance steep,
We’d be happier if we were - too sheep,
At least he can not throw us under the bus.
So these lessons on virtues that can’t apply,
We are tossed about in a moral twister,
I’m sure my brain will develop a blister,
The November right ahead is but black sky,
I have no easy answers so I do write,
We might just escape it by our skins - alright.
That’s what I have to share for today, whatever it’s worth. It was perhaps a little too broad for a posting but hopefully you’ve gained something from it.
188th Posting, April 5, 2024.