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The Voice Of Silence, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

What is silence? Is it the mere absence of words or sound? Or is it a sound itself? Simon and Garfunkel in their early 1960s hit, "The Sound of Silence," focused on a meaning that seems to predominate in our society—that silence implies apathy, or a lack of communication. They sang: "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."

For Native peoples, silence historically was understood as a means to convey often profound …