As Friedrich Nietzsche said, silence is worse because all truths that are kept silent become poisonous. By remaining silent, we are guaranteeing our own slow death. If we look around the world today, we can count a number of ills that ail sour society. Yet, we choose to remain silent. We all want progress but somewhere in the process of pursuing progress, we have failed to understand the real meaning of progress. That is why we have become complacent and mute. If progress means accruing wealth, we have come to accept all means of accruing wealth without asking if it was ill-gotten. If progress means development, we accept any and every development without asking if it is sustainable or not. If progress means education, we have come to accept any form of formal education without asking if it is meaningful.
“Progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” CS Lewis.
In the name of progress, we have even compromised on the objective truth. What is wrong is wrong, yet we try to rationalize and make that objective truth something subjective. Be it in governance, society, politics, religion or culture, we chose to remain silent and pretend that all is well because we fear that speaking up would be against our idea of progress. Most of the things that we think is wrong with our society can be corrected if we uphold objective truth, speak up and, if necessary, fight. Unfortunately, for the sake of progress, we have compromised it all.