Silence, The Deception of the Humanity?

Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

Saturday, October 26, 2013

9:26 AM

"Sounds of Silence", a song by the famous American folk rock duet Simon and Garfunkel is one of the most significant songs that I've ever come across in my life. Some sources say it's a song inspired by one of the most heart breaking events that has taken place in the history of America, The assassination of President John F Kennedy. Some sources say it's an anti-war song which discuss about the cold war taken place between America and Russia during that period. Some sources say it's a song that shows how the man kind is deceived by capitalism. But the significance of this song is, it has the ability to justify all these arguments brought up by these different sources because it tries to give out a universal massage to the world, to the man kind saying "look people wake up from your sleep, the way you are heading is wrong! You are blinded by many misconceptions, please open your eyes, stop dreaming and try to see the reality before it's too late".

According to my view, in here Simon tries to say, people are simply in a sleep living inside a dream, in a world created by them that has the ability to cater all of their desires.  With this the man kind is drifting away from the reality. They never wanted wake up from this dream and see the reality. They have been completely blinded by different misconceptions or various crazy ideologies. They have lost the ability think what is wrong and what is right. All they do is cater their various desires and they also live only to do so, nothing else matters to them. This selfish nature of the mankind is destroying themselves without even their knowledge.  Even though some people see this chaos happening to the man kind, they won’t even try to raise their voices against it.  And there may some people who understand it, but without focusing on the source where it all began they will always try to put the blame on something or someone else.

For an example some people may say, war is the reason for the ultimate destruction of mankind. And they may protest asking for peace. But is it really the war? If the peace was given to them, will everything be ok? Again some people may say, capitalism is the reason for the dehumanization of mankind. And they will protest saying give us socialism. But is it really the capitalism that dehumanized the man kind? If the socialism was given to them, will everything be ok?

War, Peace, Capitalism, Socialism all these things are concepts created by the man kind itself.  All these are concepts created to satisfy people's needs. And these concepts are again controlled by individuals chosen by people themselves. And people have given them the power to control these concepts as well.  "Power" is something that is easy to misuse and giving a massive power just to a group of individuals may lead to problems. Mainly these individuals may use these concepts to satisfy their own needs and that's where everything goes wrong. They may try to show, it’s for the beneficial of the whole mankind but always their personal agendas may back it up.  And again a chaos may create due to the actions of these individuals. And as usual people may start to blame these people. But yet again everybody has forgotten who have chosen these individuals in the first place.  It was always people themselves. 

And people are always failing to see this reality.  They always stuck in their dreams pointing fingers at each other but won't ever realize the fact that the redemption that they badly need is there within them. To obtain it, they have to change themselves. And this "change" itself is the redemption that the man kind badly wants in order to save them.

So this shows clearly that we are the ones who are responsible for the destruction of mankind, no one else. We are the one who are destroying our selves. We are the ones who have dehumanized us, no one else. And we are the ones who can also save us, no one else. Simply we ourselves are the salvation of the mankind.

So this song tells about the deception that the man kind is facing.  The destruction it causes to the man kind and how the mankind has become dehumanized because of it.

"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 here, darkness symbolically represents the conscience. So why is it call the "darkness”? Because with the dehumanization, people they have neglected the conscience, it has been kept in the dark. But conscience is always with us from our birth. We always talk with it just to make sure everything is ok, just check whether we have done something wrong.  That's why it's known as "my old friend".  People haven't cared about the conscience much.  Even the song writer has neglected it a bit, "I've come to talk with you again" suggests that he has not been dealing with the conscience frequently, he may also have moved with the flow as other people did, but suddenly one incident has opened up his eyes, he may have enlightened by that incident. As some sources say, this incident may be the JFK assassination.  And through this incident he has started to see the reality, and this is the "vision" that he has seen, and "seeds" suggest the self-realization. Through that vision he has started to realize the reality, the truth.

 And again "I was sleeping" suggest that he also have mislead a bit as other people in the society.  But the song writer has seen the truth before several times, he may have talked about it with the conscience before but he hasn’t been able to justify the truth, understand the reality so he may have given it up. But this time he has understood it well "the vision that was planted in my brain still remains" says that.

And most importantly "sounds of silence" represents the "the deceptive thoughts of the mind" of people. The truth has drowned within the silence and the silence itself has taken control of the humanity. So it says the writer has understood the truth, and he now sees the reality, he is enlightened by the truth and all these thoughts are inside his mind with all the deceptive thoughts. And it kind of suggests that there is a small struggle between the truth and the deception inside his mind. The truth is not coming out; it's been trapped inside individual's minds. And it's been neglected by them.

"In restless dream 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 sounds of silence"

"In restless dream I walked alone" suggests that the writer has got sick of these dreams that he is living inside. And he feels so lonely inside it.  It has become a very unpleasant place for him.  He is walking all alone inside his dream may be looking for his own salvation, he clearly needs to wake up from this dream but he is unable to do that. May be the society is forcing him to stay dreaming. It won't allow him to see the reality but writer sees it somehow, he just wanted wake up completely and face the reality. But as an individual it's something hard to do in a big society. It’s hard to move against the flow. So even the people who understand the reality, sees it clearly are invincibly forced to remain in silence. And that silence itself has become the enemy of the humanity. Nobody tries to break it and yell the truth out to the world. Nobody tries to change the ideas of the mankind, show them the truth and wake them up from this forsaken sleep that is been destroying the man kind. Like the quicksand the silence is been swallowing the truth inch by inch and nobody tries to rescue it.

People live in a dream created by them, but as everyone knows nothing is perfect in this world. So the dreams are also not perfect as it seems. So there may situation where the faults come out in this so called dream, and the writer is also experiencing one of these situations. He suddenly experiences the reality inside this dream created by the man.  And that incident may have brought out some light to this dark and cold dream and also has touched the mind of him with a ray of truth and the deceptive thoughts inside his mind may have been affected by it. And this is suggested by the last part of the stanza, "My eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light that split the night and touched the sounds of silence".

Again in here "light" suggests what we see, "neon" suggests the deception, lies or the artificial dream that the man has been created.

As the song goes on it shows that the writer is starting wake up little by little. This stanza suggests that the writer is a good observer because he has seen the truth inside the dream itself. It also suggests that the truth will come out, no matter how hard you try to hide it.

"And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people may be more.

People talking without speaking,

People hearing without listening,

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence."

"In the naked light I saw" suggests that the writer has been completely awakened from this dream and now he sees the reality, the truth. In here "light" suggests what we see; "naked" suggests the truth or the reality.  And after he woke up from the dream he sees many people around him dreaming like he himself used to.  He see how people have deceived by various misconceptions and he see how people are been controlled by these misconceptions without even their knowledge. People are living life that someone else wanted. They don't live for themselves, they live for someone else. They have lost the ability to "think" for themselves. They have simply become dehumanized. They have become programmable machines. Life itself has become a program a day today routine that people perform. People have lost their sensitivity towards the world. They won't see what's really happening around them. They only see what they wanted them to see. The man has become selfish, he has become a creature who is living only to satisfy their individual desires. They doesn't matter what happens to others.

Even the artistic creations that coming out from the people won't even try to tell out this pathetic situation happening to the man kind. They are always focusing on entertainment.  They never try to give out a massage to the world. The writer suggests that even the artists who considered as a sensitive group of people to the society have been caught up in this deception. And even they have lost their ability to see the reality. And he indirectly suggests that "artists" has the ability to break this silence which is been swallowing the truth through their creations but not even them try to do that so.

And this also suggests that the writer is being regretting after waking up from his dream. After seeing the reality, after seeing the pathetic situation that the society is facing because of the deception of the mankind, and how even artists have caught up in this dilemma.

"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.

After seeing the truth and what really happening to the mankind the writer has become angry. He calls the people "fool" which suggests that because of their own foolishness that they have caught up in this mess. Writer sees it clearly and he saw the dangerous consequences of this people being silent about what really happening around them. He compares this to a "cancer" which again shows the critical nature of the situation.  And the writer wants to open up the eyes of the other as well. He wanted others to see the reality as well. He wanted to help them but as an individual alone he is unable to do that, he is powerless to break up the silence.  He again understands even though he wanted to help the others he cannot do it alone by himself. He is helpless in front of the society. All he can do this sit back and watch the world burn into pieces. He has no power to save the humanity, even he really wanted to. All he can do is watch and regret about what's happening to the man kind. 

"My words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence" suggest that all the enlighten he experienced, the truth he realized, the reality he saw has become powerless in front of the silence. Even though he really wants to break it he cannot fight with silence. He understood it and he himself understood that this is a fight he cannot win; he understood that he cannot save the humanity from this mess; he cannot even break silence himself. So he is giving up this fight. And silence will swallow him as it did to others. In front of this massacre the writer is just a common man, all he can do is sit and watch, nothing else.

Sometimes writer may be regretting for waking up to see the reality. May be he is thinking of falling back to that forsaken sleep as others in the society. Even though he sees the reality, the truth, he cannot tell it to the world. He is being forced to remain in silent, and that silence itself is swallowing him as well. Silence makes the truth so powerless and helpless in front of it. As I stated before, silence has taken control over the fate of the humanity.

"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.

And the sign said, The words of the prophets are

Written on the subway walls and tenement halls,

And whispered the sounds of silence."

The writer sees, that the position of the "god" has been replaced by artificiality or may be by certain individuals due to the power and wealth they possess or as a result of the system that the people has created by themselves.  This situation, that is the god been replaced by something else may be a warning towards the humanity, that this incident alone may become a reason to the end of their kind.  As the writer says the humanity has chosen deception as their god.  So the humanity being misled is inevitable. The humanity has lost its instinct as well as its intellect. And this again has been an act of the humanity itself. Nobody is responsible for this except us. Writer sees this, that’s why he says "the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made". Because we are the ones who have replaced the position of the god with useless materials or certain individuals who doesn't deserves. So we are the ones who are responsible for our own destruction, and again it suggests that we are also the ones who are responsible for the salvation of the humanity.

Prophets are the messengers of the god, as well as the messengers of people. They see the future in the most needed times and give out a prophecy about the things yet to come. They can be warnings, advises or may be a guidance to pass through a difficult situation. In here the word "prophet" has been symbolically used to represent the people who have been enlighten by the truth but yet haven't been able to break up the silence. They have been neglected by the society or they haven't been given a chance to express their ideas to the world. So these people are expressing their vision about the fate of the humanity through their massages written in subway walls or in tenement halls. Yet these are insignificant places, and these messages don’t deserve to be written in these places like this, these messages must be transmitted to the society in a much decent way, because the fate of the society is depended on these messages. The person who writes them knows it but they are helpless and powerless in front of these "neon gods" that the whole society is praising. May be invisible forces of theses “neon gods” are suppressing them. But they haven't given up passing their massages to the society, may be they may have some ray of hope that even a single person may grab these messages and enlighten themselves about the truth. These people understand that without remaining in the silence doing nothing, it's better to do something.

The writer has observed these messages, may be like him some others may have observed it. And by saying "whispered in the sound of silence" writer tells that these messages have been effected in a certain way to pass the enlightenment to the society, yet still the "neon god" that people are being praised has managed to keep the majority of the society hypnotized under his command. But the writer suggest at the end of the song, there is a small hope left for the humanity to awake from their forsaken sleep and see the reality for themselves. He suggests that still there is a hope of defeating the deceptive god that mislead the humanity. Because he knows that there are other people like him who have been enlightened by the truth, who have been waken up from the forsaken sleep, who have been experiencing reality struggling to break the silence.

In spite of this I think, at one point the entire humanity may undergo a nihilistic feeling. And within that feeling it will indicate the self-realization of the humanity. People will understand that they were chasing after a mirage all along in their lives. And that nihilistic mirage is the deception that has deceived the humanity, which will bring the humanity to an end one day. This pathetic situation is yet to come, and writer shows us the fate of the humanity is in danger.  And he suggests that the true salvation that humanity desperately requires is buried inside us. And all we need to do is dig it out by ourselves. Neither anybody nor anything can do it for us. We must do it for ourselves, yet soon. And we must discover the buried salvation. Soon after that we must break the silence before it's too late.

Finally I can say that the humanity is fighting a war against deception with instinct and intellect.  And the fate of the humanity is lying upon on this battle.  Which will win? Nobody knows! But soon a judgment day will come.  And on that day silence will break but, will it be too late then? Well, that question again remains within the silence.

By Sachintha M.D.R