Ideological Assimilations of Silence

Abstract

AbstractIdeologies codify what their proponents claim is ‘correct’, ‘meaningful’, or ‘appropriate’ political discourse, involving patterns of conceptual decontestation, commission, and omission. All ideologies display silencing and concealing logics such as exclusion, naturalizing, and simplifying, introducing certainty into their claims. Within each ideological family, further codes regarding the overt or covert handling of silence apply. All ideological families let voices through under certain circumstances, while rationing, regulating, or thwarting their access in other areas. Silence is a precious ideological resource, offering a tabula rasa on which to chart preferred routes to securing the political prerequisites of order, harmony, progress, and collective purpose. Marxism sees itself as unmasking the hidden, oppressive, and distorting arrangements in a society. Liberals who extol privacy overlook abuses that can occur within that shielded domain. Feminists have endured ignorance and cultural disregard for issues specifically pertinent to women’s lives. Anarchists keen to dismantle political control can be unaware of the politicization, organization, and leadership it requires. Conservatives mask human design by appealing to God, history, or economics as masters of human fate. Socialists may bury reform in the folds of a distant and obviously silent future. Populists conceal social diversity by claiming to voice the undifferentiated will of the people. Totalitarianisms routinize power and fear to the point where suppressing dissent and political criticism is normalized.