Summary
Silencing - forms of oppression of individuals, families and communities
Your life begins with someone asking you not to cry, especially not at night. Then they ask you to control your anger and be polite and patient. At school – disciplined and obedient. In puberty - to rein in sexuality. At work - to focus exclusively on tasks. In your spare time – to think about how politics shapes the world and what sellers want. The history of our lives is, in a way, the history of the silencing of our authentic voices. The problem is that this silencing is so pervasive and starts so early that most people take it for granted and don't try to break free; at the same time, it often seems that the only way out of one form of silencing is to enter another. One could even say that the silencing is so significant that it is easier to overcome the traumatic experiences themselves than to overcome their silencing. The book dissects many of these forms of silencing that easily go unnoticed. The author talks about silencing in dictatorships, under the influence of propaganda, between and within major religions, in psychiatric institutions and educational systems, that is, about how silencing is shown in the history of culture and literature. The book shows how different individuals, groups and institutions silence their opponents, witnesses, victims, "non-believers", dissidents, artists, women, students, patients and researchers... "Shutdown" is the translation of the first volume in a series of books dealing with the forms, consequences, mechanisms and overcoming of this extremely influential phenomenon.
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