Elephants in the room
We talked a lot about "collusive silence" earlier, and today we're going to talk about an elephant.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a zookeeper, and this "elephant" is not a real "elephant."
I know that the phrase "elephant in the room" is not known to the majority of Chinese people, and may also include you in front of the screen, it doesn't matter, this is a British proverb, "elephant" refers to some kind of huge and unavoidable truth, and the existence of this "elephant" in the room means that we choose to live with it in peace.
In fact, I also want to say that not only do we have an elephant in our room, our society and even our culture are hiding one elephant after another, we are all "rare and confused", really live up to Zheng Banqiao's famous words.
The question asks, do we choose to "explode in silence" or "die in silence"?
To be or not to be？ This requires great courage, and even a certain price.
Then again, why do we choose this collective unconscious silence?
The usual term is "self-protection". Yes, self-preservation.
Case in point: The daughter of a post-Holocaust survivor who for years asked her mother to tell her about her relatives who had been killed by the Nazis ended up receiving four nearly blank sheets of paper from her mother.
Another example is the domestic movie "Twenty-Four", which tells about the atrocities of the Japanese army, in which some of the victims' grandmothers will cry and nervously say while facing the crew to inquire about the facts of that year: Don't say it, don't say it. I have no intention of condescendingly criticizing these venerable victims, they are really too difficult, I just want to say that this is a kind of self-protection mechanism: the past has happened, and now we can forget it and try not to mention it again - the ability and courage to open the wound again, not everyone has it, whether we are subconscious or awake, we are afraid of all kinds of "pain".
Pain, like wounds, causes discomfort, which is placed on the public and is called "taboo."
Aren't there many taboos in our lives? "Don't look at incivility, don't listen to incivility, don't say or move" and so on, too much, this is just what culture and customs teach us, then what about the rest, you want to go.
The emergence of taboos means the division of forbidden areas. We didn't dare to walk into the tiger and lion cages in the zoo because our lives were in danger. Similarly, the zoo also prohibits tourists from feeding predators such as tigers and lions, on the one hand, it does not meet the "regulations" of the park, on the other hand, it is afraid that these carnivores have enough strength to escape after eating and drinking, creating panic and causing various injuries and losses.
At this point, do I make it clear enough?
Still can't get it? It's okay, take the movie.
"Prince of the City," "Mississippi Burning," "In the Heat of the Night," "A Few Good Men," "Bad Day at Black Rock," and "Serpico" all have taboos against exposing the "ugliness" of social organization , made a vivid description that is still memorable.
Wake up!
Please tell the people around you that there is an elephant in our "room" that if we are willing to speak, the elephant will miraculously become smaller and even disappear, even if not for others, for the sake of children.
For the kids!
Iveta Zelubaville: The Elephant in the Room – Silence and Denial in Life