Silence Is Not Neutral

In an era when a single post can reach thousands in minutes, we are witnessing a troubling contradiction: the generation with the widest access to technology in human history is choosing not to speak up. Scroll through anyone’s social media today and you will likely find the same pattern. Stories about food, Pilates reels, an abundance of entertainment content, but almost nothing when it comes to discussing policies that directly impact their lives. The suffocating rise in tuition fees that forces students to drop out of university. Legislative revisions that narrow civil space. Other policies made without any room for the voice of young people, especially students. I am certain they know. They feel the effects. But they choose to remain silent. I often hear the reasons: ‘I don’t understand politics,’ ‘I’m afraid of being wrong,’ ‘What’s the point, we aren’t listened to anyway,’ or ‘It doesn’t affect my life.’ Let me be clear: all these reasons are a very comfortable way to avoid responsibility. We do not need to be legal experts to opine that a certain policy feels unjust. Nor do we need a high degree in political science to voice that something is wrong when major decisions are made and ratified without any transparency or public involvement. In my view, all that is needed is the courage to be honest and voice what we feel and think. As for the fear of being wrong, perhaps we will be wrong. An opinion can be mistaken, an argument can be imperfect. But silence does not make us right. Silence only makes us increasingly unheard; we are barely heard when we do speak up, let alone if we are completely silent. What is crucial to understand, and what most often escapes our awareness, is that silence is not a neutral position. Silence is a choice, and every choice has consequences. When young people, who are flooded with information, directly affected by policies, and have platforms to speak, choose not to use them, the only ones who benefit are those already in power. The status quo does not need supporters; it only needs the absence and silence of opposing voices. In line with Noam Chomsky’s critique of how media and power structures manufacture consent, a person who feels alone in their views tends to choose silence. This phenomenon is also explained in the spiral of silence theory, where people are reluctant to voice their opinions because they perceive their views as a minority. Previous generations took to the streets facing far more tangible risks—imprisonment, violence, job loss—just to voice what they believed was right. Today, we can do it from anywhere. Risks certainly remain, but they are not comparable to the consequences of our collective silence as young people. We do not have to be perfect, nor do we have to be completely fearless, but we can start to speak up, to repost what we think through the many posts of others who have already voiced it. Because democracy is not a spectacle; it is a practice of participation, and participation begins with the courage not to remain silent.