#63: Disciplined Silence

The things we are trained to remain silent about usually involve shame. We learn from a young age to avoid particular issues: "never talk politics or religion at parties." But it turns out that the things we are taught to never talk about are usually the things we should be talking about most. What sort of world do we want to build for our posterity? What sorts of practices ought we allow to be considered religious? And who is benefitting from the suffering we see around us every day? Disciplined silence is how systems and cultures weave terrible behavior into their histories for long periods of time, then finally jettison those rituals as outdated, usually long after they should have. Once they are no longer normalized, and once we are free to discuss them, it suddenly becomes obvious that they were unacceptable oppressive practices. It is too bad we didn't fix them sooner. Disciplined Silence is how the war on drugs is still a thing. Support the show