In the absence of silence

If we were to put our losses on top of each other, they would make a huge pile of books. I now embrace the idea that as humans we are very dangerous and harmful species for this world. So, what did humans do to lose so much including the silence? We can answer this briefly by saying that they got estranged to themselves and the nature. Actually, if we ask what didn’t humans do we can go to the answer rather easily. Humans did everything! Humans feared the unknown, disturbed the silence of the universe, dread darkness and as a result of all this, humans turned this heavenly world into hell. Us humans are the only ones to be expelled from heaven, thus the only species to turn this world into hell. This, as a consequence, makes us afraid as species, very afraid. Where we shelter ourselves in this athmosphere of fear is the consumption frenzy! We consume everything, ourselves, the nature and all living creatures.


Planets do not make a sound while turning, even though man-made machines are noisy. Ponder how stars, planets, galaxies and galaxy groups that weigh millions of tons travel through the space at such great speed. The Earth in which we live in, orbits around its own axis with 1670 km per hour speed and around the Sun with 108000 km/h speed. The Solar system’s speed while it orbit arounds the center of galaxy is 720.000 km/h while the Milky Way’s speed in space is 950.000 km/h. This non-stop motion is so intense that the Earth and the Solar System navigates 500 million km away from their former spot every year.

Silence used to be, to varying degrees, a means of isolation. Now it is the absence of silence that works to render today's world empty and isolating. Its reserves have been invaded and depleted. The Machine marches globally forward and silence is the dwindling place where noise has not yet penetrated.Civilization is a conspiracy of noise, designed to cover up the uncomfortable silences. The silence-honoring Wittgenstein understood the loss of our relationship with it. The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans, erosion of critical thinking, and a lessened capacity for deeply felt experiences. Silence, like darkness, is hard to come by; but mind and spirit need its sustenance.(1)

A mind without sustenance is bound to be controlled! The whole world today is in the control of the militarism and the capitalism. In the cities that stack us up, it is almost impossible to find some quietude where even finding darkness is a challenge. With the oil, electricity, hydroelectric power plants and thermal plants we live in light and motion 24 hours a day whereas we need to rest after a while, listen to our innervoice by lapsing into silence and darkness; experiencing our naturality by keeping up with the planet.

You have to see that the people who live in the absence of silence are very unhappy, they cause stress without ceasing, they are afraid, they are crazy consumers, they are estranged to themselves and so miserable that they can not even make it in the nature just for a day and they are incapable of understanding the nature and its laws.

To reach the silence we have to rebuild ourselves. That is quite hard to do in the cities and under the shadow of the machines. To live close to our nature and according to the natural laws is not a choice, but a necessity. To meet this necessity we have to take on some serious responsibilities.

All the negativity such as the sense of owning something, jealousy, unhappiness, pain, hatred, stress and etc. are created by humans. The beginning point of this creation started with losing the silence.
With these words I wrote in the absence of silence,I will try to explain more of this issue in the upcoming days. I will try to tell you about the wonderfulness of the silence that I find myself near , the silence that blesses me.See you on my next column…

Mehmet Lütfü Özdemir – http://akilvefikir.org/2014/06/19/sessizligin-yoklugunda/

1. John Zerzan, Twilight of the Machines