June 23, 2020

"Silence Is Made In America" (a found slogan).

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You may have to click twice to enlarge and see the plywood stamp "Made in America." Oh, let me help:

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Here's the full image, with the intended slogan ("Silence Is Violence"):

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Here's the Wikipedia article "Found Poetry" (which I'm choosing over "Found object" because we're talking about words):
Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them (a literary equivalent of a collage) by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning. The resulting poem can be defined as either treated: changed in a profound and systematic manner; or untreated: virtually unchanged from the order, syntax and meaning of the poem.
I invite you to reflect on the meaning of the phrase no human mind intended to say, but that I saw and regarded as worth reflecting upon: "Silence Is Made In America." It's not something I am happy about, this American product, Silence. It is not one of the world's most beloved brands.

Here's a statement about silence that was made with intention: "Silence is death, and you, if you talk, you die, and if you remain silent, you die. So, speak out and die." That was said by the Algerian journalist and writer Tahar Djaout (who was assassinated).

ADDED: Is "silence"/"violence" a good rhyme? Dylan used it:
My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence

58 comments:

tcrosse said...

The hate that dare not speak its name....

narciso said...

How about truth


https://romesentinel.com/stories/thoughts-on-not-taking-part-in-lies,99777#.XvJxLDOiJIM.facebook

Wince said...

You can't be silent, and you can't say what they don't want to hear.

Ergo, you must say what they want to hear.

gilbar said...

"Silence is death, and you, if you talk, you die, and if you remain silent, you die

that's pretty dull; here's one that's Much more interesting
"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed."

Laslo Spatula said...

Made me think of Burroughs and the cut-up technique.

From wiki:

The cut-up technique (or découpé** in French) is an aleatory* literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to at least the Dadaists of the 1920s, but was popularized in the late 1950s and early 1960s by writer William S. Burroughs, and has since been used in a wide variety of contexts..."

*Aleatoricism ( /ˌeɪ̯liəˈtɔrəsɪzm̩, -ˈtɒr-, ˌæli-/ ey-lee-uh-TAWR-uh-siz-uhm, -TOR-, al-ee)[1] or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez,[not verified in body] but also Witold Lutoslawski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "actions made by chance", with its etymology deriving from alea, Latin word for "dice".[2] It now applies more broadly to art created as a result of such a chance-determined process...


And, from faena site:

"...Another of the great figures who used the method was Bob Dylan, who harnessed it to mine his frankly literary vein. “The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face” was written using the technique..."

**découpé? DeVille!

I am Laslo.

Gahrie said...

Silence is violence is exactly the type of slogan Marx, Lenin, Mussolini or Hitler would have come up with.

Nichevo said...


"A word is worth [one coin], but silence is worth two." — Talmud, Megillah 18a


A lover of women must keep in mind that not all of them would choke to death on their own tongues if the latter were not kept constantly in motion.

For someone who is such an avowed feminist and who despises stereotypes, how many of those about women you fit. You put me in mind of Nero Wolfe:

He sighed. "You understand, Miss Fox, this is something unprecedented. It has been many years since any woman has slept under this roof. Not that I disapprove of them, except when they attempt to function as domestic animals. When they stick to the vocations for which they are best adapted, such as chicanery, sophistry, self-adornment, cajolery, mystification and incubation, they are sometimes splendid creatures."

You two might have gotten along at that. You don't strike one as the domestic type. He would have had to have Archie quiet your yap a few times though.

n.n said...

Superposition. Proposition. Inquisition.

Krumhorn said...

I would prefer a great deal more silence. All the complaining and bitching from self-identified victims is stultifying. I would particularly enjoy silence from those with acute moral clarity.

I don't care where it's made, but we need large shipments of silence along with the toilet paper and Lysol.

- Krumhorn

Mark said...

Elie Wiesel had something to say about silence:

"And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe."

Wa St Blogger said...

So, if the power of the leftist institutions are used to silence undesirable voices, have they in effect forced someone to commit violence?

Birkel said...

Silence is the alternative to kinetic response.

rcocean said...

Silence is violence.

Orwell should have used that in "1984".

n.n said...

Silence is a civil right. #privacy

n.n said...

The hate that dare not speak its name....

Diversity breeds adversity. Here's to Madison's progress in exclusion.

jaydub said...

Silence is what most of these twits could use more of.

Ann Althouse said...

"Made me think of Burroughs and the cut-up technique."

It's used in the beginning of the great Tom Stoppard play "Travesties" which depicts real historical characters in Zurich in 1917:

-----------------

LENIN is... writing quietly, among books and papers, TZARA is writing as the play begins. On his table are a hat and a large pair of scissors, TZARA finishes writing, then takes up the scissors and cuts the paper, word by word, into his hat. When all the words are in the hat he shakes the hat and empties it on the table. He rapidly separates the bits of paper into random lines, turning a few over, etc., and then reads the result in a loud voice.

TZARA: Eel ate enormous appletzara
key dairy chef’s hat he’ll learn oomparah!
Ill raced alas whispers kill later nut east,
noon avuncular ill day Clara!...

CARR (Coldly): My dear Tristan, to be an artist at all is like living in Switzerland during a world war. To be an artist in Zurich, in 1917, implies a degree of self-absorption that would have glazed over the eyes of Narcissus... And besides I couldn’t be an artist anywhere – I can do none of the things by which is meant Art.

TZARA: Doing the things by which is meant Art is no longer considered the proper concern of the artist. In fact it is frowned upon. Nowadays, an artist is someone who makes art mean the things he does. A man may be an artist by exhibiting his hindquarters. He may be a poet by drawing words out of a hat.

CARR: But that is simply to change the meaning of the word Art.

TZARA: I see I have made myself clear.

CARR: Then you are not actually an artist at all?

TZARA: On the contrary. I have just told you I am.

Ann Althouse said...

The trouble with the "silence" in "silence is violence" is that you're required to say a particular thing. That's the worst kind of censorship. Not at all what Tahar Djaout was talking about.

Spiros said...

Why did Pius XII stay silent during the Nazi extermination of the Jews?

Christopher J Feola said...

They put out my picture with silence
'Cause my identity by itself causes violence
The E with the criminal behavior
Yeah, I'm a gangsta, but still I got flavor-Eazy-E/NWA, F@#$ Tha Police

Birkel said...

I have said it before; I like it better in the original Italian.

"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
--Benito Mussolini

stevew said...

I've been in the sales profession nearly my entire working life. I learn the most from my prospects and customers when I am silent. And win more deals as a result.

The admonition, "Silence is Violence" has but one purpose, and it isn't more speech.

Jonathan said...

You can call it whatever you want, you dress it up however you want. Urban blight is urban blight.

Spiros said...

The woke are living inside Plato's Cave. There is no need to think or question authority. There is no doubt that they are right. From Socrate's "The Republic":

"Imagine this. People live under the earth in a cavelike dwelling. Stretching a long way up toward the daylight is its entrance, toward which the entire cave is gathered. The people have been in this dwelling since childhood, shackled by the legs and neck. Thus they stay in the same place so that there is only one thing for them to look that: whatever they encounter in front of their faces. But because they are shackled, they are unable to turn their heads around." Etc. Etc.

The cave is the internet!!!

Christopher J Feola said...

Blogger extraordinaire Ann Althouse said: It's used in the beginning of the great Tom Stoppard play "Travesties" which depicts real historical characters in Zurich in 1917

Then there is the exchange between Tzara and Joyce:
(Tzara has been using Joyce's hat to make poems out of cut out words...)
Tzara: (I demand) The right to urinate in different colours
Joyce: Each person in different colours at different times, or different people in each colour all the time? Or everybody multi-coloured every time?
Tzara: It was more to make the point that making poetry should be as natural as making water -
Joyce: God send you don't make them in the one hat.

Kai Akker said...

"but is art made under duress art?" [AA]

As you corrected, not under duress. What's there is poster art. I don't think it qualifies as an Orozco mural or a Thomas Hart Benton, come to think of that. It's just simple poster art. Could be better, could be worse, the best news will be if it's gone soon.

donald said...

Whatta buncha pussies.

narciso said...


How about lies, not the opposite of silence

https://mobile.twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1275558813282770949

rhhardin said...

Rural accomplishments today
1. Scyther heading out for a final cut of the front yard
2. Result, with dog

No need for plywood.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

we have the right to remain silent
because anything we say can or may be used against us in the court of public opinion

BarrySanders20 said...

Silence is violence?

If so, I say that I will believe black lives matter when the blacks stop butchering each other. Until then, all of these protesters, looters, rioters can fuck right off.

Rick.T. said...

On the other hand if you're speaking, you're not listening.

Narr said...

"Is art made under duress art?" Let's allow the Jewish children of Theresienstadt to answer that one.

Here's a generic headline, probably good for a few more months: Vandals Protest Existence of Past, Demand Perfect Future.

Narr
If silence = violence, then violence = golden

Rick.T. said...

Rural accomplishments, Southeast edition. Planted:

Fatsia 'Spider Web'
Acer j. 'Full Moon'
Camellia 'E.G. Waterhouse'
various perennials from HD $3.98 blowout
various species bulbs

No need for plywood here, either. Only deer repellent.

Kai Akker said...

Great pictures, rhhardin! Loved those. Nice-looking doggie.

n.n said...

Silent lucidity.

FullMoon said...

Better to keep silent and be thought a fool
Than to fool me twice
And...

Nevermind.

n.n said...

And I will see the [art] and skip over you, and there will be no [redistributive change] to destroy [you] when I [protest] the [people... persons of the] land of [Madison].

robother said...

Boarding up the windows of the Museum to prevent spontaneous expressions of rage against the White Privilege that an Art Museum represents sounds like the kind of thing BLM and Antifa should be further enraged by. Asking "artists" to camouflage the White Privilege inherent in this act of boarding up the Museum with trite expressions of racial solidarity is adding insult to injury. This will not stand!

Josephbleau said...

As I said earlier,
1. Silence is Violence.
2. Free Speech is Violence.
3. Therefore, the only non violent speech is coerced speech.

A free human is not required to save another. A free human is not required to free an imprisoned person. A free person is not required to prevent another from hurting themselves. Do you agree?

chickelit said...

"Silence is violence" tries to harken back to Simon and Garfunkel but fails in my opinion. "Silence is violence" also tries to undo Nixon's "silent majority." I dislike the phrase and concept because it flies in the face of our right to remain silent. I reject the phrase "Silence is violence."

chickelit said...

I grew up and went to school in the Madison but I think the present leaders in government there are doing a terrible jobs. They make Paul Soglin look like Bill Dyke. You won't see me back there anytime soon. You people deserve exactly what you got.

walter said...

From "Co-Exist" to "Be my hand puppet or else".
Busy at Blaska:
No police, no State Street

Freeman Hunt said...

We are expected now to participate in so many lies.

Jon Burack said...

I simply cannot relate to these things as works of art. They are criminal acts of destruction and mob intimidation, even where self-inflicted insurance against the mob. I'd really like to see a large enough crowd walk, in total silence perhaps as a wry comment on the idiot slogan of the day here, walk through those streets defacing and tearing down every single one of these hideous monuments to mob violence and intimidation. Would the mayor and whatever authorities are left try to stop this crowd? On what grounds? How would they justify criminalizing the destruction of what are themselves criminal acts of destruction? Accepting this as some kind of new normal is itself some kind of new insanity. I conclude from all these images Ann has shown us of the State Street I once treasured that Madison has now far exceeded in malevolent contempt for ordinary citizens the CHAS/CHOP fiasco of Seattle. They out there are pikers compared to this madness.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Silence is golden

LA_Bob said...

Silence can be survival under many circumstances. And words can as effectively be used to obscure meaning as to convey it. Politicians are usually born knowing this.

Howard said...

Don't fret none Freeman. No one expects anything from you Trumper's but blind loyalty to Dear Leader. Don't worry your pretty little head about what it all means. You can't wake dead souls.

Sebastian said...

"They are criminal acts of destruction and mob intimidation"

But, but, pretty pictures! So creative!

Nichevo said...

Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe."


Horseshit, Mark.

Not him, you. Something like an average of five?ten? unarmed black people are killed by the police yearly in the US for the last decade. That is not the center of the universe. Nothing happening in America compares to the bucket of blood that is the rest of the world.

Suppression, intimidation of "peaceful" "protesters?" Hell, the gilets jaunes in France are getting hurt worse than this, lots worse. Never freaking mind what goes on in China or Iran. You're just freighting these events with all this import because it benefits and pleases you to do so, and doubly because you can dress it up in the Holy Writ of secular saints while your pals like Ilhan Omar and Linda Sarsour idly wonder how their pal Hitler missed that hebe, and vow to do better.

wildswan said...

The Den pretense is that the Madison black community only needs to pull down a few statues and do a few decorative murals on cheap plywood. I'd like to see a mural diagramming the way the Democratic party leadership causes poor conditions in Madison for the black community which leads to protests led by Black Lives Matter which leads to donations to Black Lives Matter which donations are routed to the Democratic party and Old White Joe. But not one mural depicts the money trail. Eyeless in Gaza.

William said...

I read a biography of Madame de Stael. Back in 1810, she wrote a book about the culture and philosophy of Germany. Napoleon's censors wouldn't let her publish it. The reason? She nowhere in the book discussed the positive effects Napoleon had on German literature and thought.....This "silence is violence" is an odd mixture of the trite and the totalitarian rather like how their graffiti is colorful and banal.

Josephbleau said...

To read Howard is to know Howard. When I do I throw up a little, in my mouth.

mikee said...

Seen on a local grafitti fence in east Austin: "Existence will eat your philosophy for breakfast."

Earnest Prole said...

It's not something I am happy about, this American product, Silence. It is not one of the world's most beloved brands.

The American brand is "I'll know my song well before I start singin'" -- otherwise shut the Hard Rain Fuck up.

Jon Burack said...

BY the way, Dylan's line is quite appropriate. "WITHOUT ideals or violence." Every single one of the hideous propagandistic and puerile examples of poster art on these boarded up buildings screams the exact opposite of Dylan's vision. It is all NOTHING BUT ideals and violence. Never has Dylan's prophetic insight been better demonstrated.

dbp said...

Early on a 6-mile jog yesterday, I noticed a new Black Lives Matter sign, which are pretty common here in a distant suburb of Boston. What attracted my attention was a small epigraph at the bottom. Silence = Violence.

The more I thought about it (I had 5 miles to to go and I'm not fast) the more I thought, "This is the moment BLM has jumped the shark".

First we are informed that speech (of the wrong kind) is violence. Then we are preached that violence is speech. And now, complete passivity is violence. My head ached more in thinking how to unknot the logical contradictions, than my legs did in running in 90 degrees.

I will resist speaking on some things but if I'm forced to opine, I will say: BLM and ANTIFA sound nice In practice, the first will result in more black lives lost (mostly black men at the hands of other black men) and the second are (despite their name) fascist street thugs.

dbp said...

Elie Wiesel had something to say about silence:

"...Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe."

Right now, it is obvious who is the oppressor. The people commanding me to speak are the oppressors.