People writing songs that voices never share…

‘The Sound Of Silence’ is a powerful metaphor for loneliness and spiritual emptiness in a changing world. It is a gloomy painting displaying a desperate longing for connection, for recognition.

By Nargis Natarajan

‘The Sound Of Silence’ is not just a song.

It is an anthem.   

It is a hymn to resistance against the shallow and disconnected nature of our society.

It is an echo of muffled voices drowned in the chaos of indifference and alienation.

It is a powerful metaphor for loneliness and spiritual emptiness in a changing world. 

It is a gloomy painting displaying a desperate longing for connection, for recognition.

It is a sculpture of struggle in a museum of statues engulfed in superficiality and noise.

And it is a puzzling poetry as mysterious as Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile; because it can be interpreted in so many ways.

‘Hello Darkness, my old friend’

The melancholic tone is set with a dark disquiet -- a void that everything artificial fails to fill. Although Art Garfunkel describes it more as a ‘social disconnect’, Paul Simon’s inspiration for penning the lines was actually ‘social unrest’. He felt people were getting desensitized and distracted by the ‘Neon Gods’ of Media and Materialism, unable to truly connect or speak out against every form of injustice. 

‘And the people bowed and prayed, to the Neon Gods they made’:

In our AI driven world, this kind of blind worship becomes even more dangerous. Anything murky and clouded undermines trust. It perpetuates biases. The overwhelming influence of all artificial ‘Neon Gods’ is so powerful that it distracts us from deeper issues -- the real issues. And with no active participation, we end up passively consuming everything.  

What is the solution? 

 First off, even while navigating through the complexities of Artificial Intelligence, let us not leave our wisdom and integrity behind. Let us also apply our Natural Thinking. Let us use technology as a tool for human flourishing. NOT as an object of misplaced reverence. 

When people ‘talk without speaking’ or ‘hear without listening’, their original thoughts and ideas remain unheard; their voices end up croaking and echoing in the ‘Well of Silence’. When such ‘voices are never shared’; or ‘when no one dares to disturb’ the norm, the silence will only keep growing like ‘cancer’.

So we can either choose to ignore, or come forward with open dialogues. 

In essence, ALL colourful and glittering Gods operate like ‘Black Boxes’, because their decision-making processes are well hidden from public scrutiny. These fluorescent ‘Gods’ may seem bright and alluring but in truth they are all hollow.

So let us use our critical thinking to jump out from the ‘Well of Silence’ into a space of introspection and contemplation. A blind faith for issues, things and people, where the line of worship becomes blurred, raises several questions. Not only about our values, or our independence, but also about the nature of our very existence! 

There is power in a voice.

There is power in music.

Since we cannot right every wrong, my daughter and

I have tried to take forward Simon and Garfunkel’s message by gently breaking the ‘Sound Of Silence’. Thank you Rumana Shanker (Masha) for putting up this meaningful invite!  

#soundofsilence 

#simonandgarfunkel 

#TurnOnTheSound

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Nargis Natarajan is an author and writer based in Bhubaneshwar.

First posted on Facebook. Sharing with thanks to Nargis Natarajan.

Courtesy Wikipedia.

Lyrics of the song: Sound of Silence.

Sung by Simon and Garfunkel.

Witten by Paul Simon.

Hello, darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

'Neath the halo of a street lamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light, I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never shared

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "You do not know

Silence, like a cancer, grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you"

But my words, like silent raindrops, fell

And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

Then the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

In tenement halls..."

And whispered in the sound of silence...