Silence is Golden

Its time for my period again. Yes, I'm menstruating. Every month, I come online and menstruate all my fucking woes in this blog. Yar, I'm unhappy.

Oh why? Because I'm addicted to unhappiness. Don't you just love to hate? Don't you just can't get enough of sadness? Don't you just get a high everytime you feel hated? I do. I love being sad. I love hating someone. I love being hated. I fantasize about it. I have wet dreams about it. I like it.

Yeah, I'm one fucked up bastard.

I think I've said the previous line alot of times in my life already.

But you know what?

You know what's even lovelier than feeling sad and fucked up and pissed and downtrodden? Its keeping quiet about it. You just zip up and stew. Stew stew stew. Lovely feeling. You can feel the burning in your chest, it spreads, slowly, like a tumour, a corruption, a gangrene, spreading inexorably, inevitably through your body, rotting everything it touches, warping everything it moves by, destroying everything it makes contact with.

Yes, Silence is Golden.

You know what will make this an "emo" post? By me ending it right now. But noooooooo!

I won't.

Because I'm an egotistical bastard and I must always act as though I'm a professional philosopher and spew out junk by the truckloads in order to look amusing and make readers crack laughs that create tumours in their genitals. I won't make this a simple "emo" post, I'll come up with some cock and bull rationale about why "Silence is Golden" and act as though I've just done humanity a favour and enlightened all the stupid fucking apes dragging knuckles around me.

Gods, I love cliches.

Silence is Golden. Its not literal, of course. Silence (in this case, "silence" refers to "keeping silent".) is a verb, not an object, so to describe it, you cannot use an adjective, you must use an adverb. Golden is an adjective, and thus, is grammatically wrong in this instance. So, if this idiom cannot be interpretated literally, what's the angle to look at it from?

What does it mean when you say, "Silence is Golden"?

Well, "gold" is very precious to humans. It is one of the softest metals on the face of this earth, useless for anything practical. A stout, wooden staff can probably snap a golden sword. Gold is, however, used as an immutable anchor of monetary value. In the past, gold is used AS money. Gold IS the measure of your wealth. Therefore, gold is precious.

So if we say "Silence" is "Golden", we are saying that "Silence" is precious. We are saying it is rare that people are silent, and in those rare times when they are, it is something to be cherished and hoarded. I agree totally. Silence is golden. We have too many people talking in this world. Birds chirp all day long. Can't they shut the fuck up? Dogs bark like there's no tomorrow. Can't they shut the fuck up? Humans yap about everything under the sun. Can't they shut the fuck up?

What's so goddamned interesting about who that girl seduced? What's so fucking amusing about how many guys she can take in at a go? Is it something to be proud of, that a member of the same race of you is a slut, a bitch and whatever insults you want to call her? What's so hellishly important about your problems? Is it so important that other people know you lost your warcraft three cd? Hey, sorry Swee, but its true. You bitch alot.

Well, I bitch alot too. I know. I mean, I bitch about my importance all the time. I mean, so what if I lost the CD-key to my game? Big deal! So what if I have some tips about this new hero on DotA? Big deal. So what if I fell asleep doing econs? Big deal.

You see, humans just cannot shut the fuck up. That's the point I'm trying to make. Therefore, Silence IS rare.

So why is Silence precious? Why should we hoard silence whenever it appears? What is so important, so signficant about this rare commodity?

Well, Silence is an action that has so many repercussions. A person keeping silent can create an effect that is far greater than 10 people screaming, shouting and stomping. Who do you think is more effective in keeping the peace in a class? A teacher who comes in and goes, "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU USELESS BASTARDS!" Or one that pisses everyone off by sitting with his legs on the table, waiting for the class to quiet?

You'll say the first one. But you mistake my question. When I ask the "effectiveness", I am talking about the "effect", not of 1 hour, not of 2 hours, but of a lifetime.

What is the effect of a teacher screaming at a class to keep quiet? If he has a scary enough voice, they will keep quiet. They might even keep quiet automatically from every other lesson onwards. But that's all. The shouting becomes a large, explosive, but short effect. Immediate, but short.

What about the one that remains silent? The class will not react immediately. When they finally react, they will have lost some time in learning. They might bitch. They might think the teacher a retard. They might grow to hate him. They might gossip. They might become respectful.

Yes, the former can also become hated and gossiped about. But the significance of silence? The significance is that it CAN BE INTERPRETATED IN ANY WAY. The teacher that shouts will expect, and probably receive, the effect of EVERYONE in the class becoming quiet and paying attention. But the teacher that keeps silent can expect anything from an initiative "shh!" to raucous laughter and insults. Everyone will react in a different way to silence, and each of that reaction will spark off yet another set of different reactions, which will go on and on.

With the former, everything is so boring. Everyone shuts up, and everyone hates the teacher, and everyone spreads rumours, and everyone wants to fuck him up...

With the latter, there will be people who will do the above, and there will be people who respect him, and there will be people who learn from him, and there will be people who think he's daft... And each different reaction will touch off another set of different reactions, which will go on and on and on.

Think of it this way.

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You can see how Silence will have a far greater effect, right?

Its ironic, that the action that is the most passive will touch off the most repercussions.

"Use your knowledge like a pocket watch - don't take it out to show off, but give the time when you're asked." - some old guy.

The exact quote is on my NY forums account's signature. Basically, its saying the same thing. Keep quiet, though you're absolutely bursting with knowledge, and only share it when you're asked.

There are so many things that you can do with your voice, with commanding, with confrontations and shouting. But how much more can you do with Silence?

Its a double-edged sword, of course, since the effects of Silence is like rolling a stone off the top of mount everest. It will snowball, and whatever the effects, once started, is unstoppable.

Do you know how I will continue to build my case? I'll tell you: by going to bed. I'm tired, lazy and fucking pissed, so I won't continue. Besides, in this scenario, I will let Silence speak for itself. Afterall, the effects will be something interesting to see.

Looking to the future~
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