Pope Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, was eloquent on the value of silence: “In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves.
“By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested.
“In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible.”
We need silence, in other words, to think both clearly and charitably. In a world of constant sound and stimulation, it is harder to be accurate in our reasoning and empathetic in our listening.
In Catholicism, as in so many other traditions, reflection and contemplation are admirable virtues. In the stifling stillness created by the merger of secularism, and technology, they are horrendous vices.
To reason our way to reliable answers, we need the time and space to think. Otherwise, we cannot really listen and reason but only react. And when we react rather than listen, the possibilities for genuine public conversation are debased.
In a nutshell, we live in a world that leaves us little time to contemplate.
We are busy people. Pursing our thoughts takes an investment of time that few can spare. Yet, all of us need to patch together what bits of reflection we can. We lack the time to seek out silent spaces, we lack the time to think clearly; and if we lack the time to think clearly, we lack the time to do democracy well.
This is an excerpt from a article by Stephen L Carter, a Bloomberg View columnist and a professor of law at Yale University. It is available at http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/340789/. He is the author of The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama, and the novel The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. Pope Benedict’s quotes can be sourced from http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20120124_46th-world-communications-day.html)