Era of Loud Voices

They say silence is the most powerful scream. If so, why do people feel the need to shout? If silence is so discreet, shouting seems senseless. However, realities in our world are otherwise. Shouting is becoming gradually more necessary. People believe that if they don’t shout, they will not be heard. The reason being that people are increasingly turning receptive to loudness. People like shrill voices and give them attention and space. Shouting, like barking, has become the new normal of human species.

Noted poet and lyricist, Nida Fazli, wrote a beautiful line, “Awazoo Kay Baazaron Mein Khamoshi Pehchanay Kaun….Mouh Ki Baat Sunay Her Koi…..”

In a world full of diverse dogmas, the rigidity of thought has become an unquestionable norm. People are not ready to budge an inch from their perspective positions. People take stanch standpoints and pursue them doggedly. People comprise a multitude of commoners, a bunch of politicians, a group of thinkers and policy makers.

Perhaps it’s because people have taken in flawed interpretations of ideologies they adhere to. Everyone thinks that the other one is wrong. This prejudiced binary of “us” and “they” has dominated the discourses along all planes. Some feel suppressed and shout. Some feel terrorized and shout. Some feel voiceless and shout. Some feel vulnerable and shout. Some feel subjugated and shout. Some feel progressive and shout.

There are umpteen reasons for people to shout. And there are countless explanations of not keeping mum. More and more, people are turning their back on silence and are not willing to be bullied into stillness. The trend is trending. World is moving into an era that is full of shouting, and as rightly said by someone ‘there are times when silence is the best way to yell at the top of your voice’. It is happening. As of now, shouting is a rite of passage. Silence is breaking and turning into a fable.

Shouting can’t always be bereft of rationale. If it improves on silence, then it is probably the best tool. Contrary to it, Desmond Tutu, an acclaimed South African human rights activist, says-“Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument”. Of course, mere shouting that adds up only noise is bound to fizzle out as soon as shouters lose their energy to persist. Unless the words shouted get enough respect by their respective shouters, all else will fall on deaf ears or steadily move into the dirty dustbin of memory.

Undeniably, the loudest of mouths are heard. In the market of voices, it is an immutable reality. But far more powerful reality is the force of certain arguments. Even if not uttered out at the top of your voice.

From the communication point of view, when noise creeps in any communication process, it cannot yield the desired result. ‘Noise’ can have both internal and external causes. Internal noise is attributed to the psychological makeup or intellectual ability of communicators. External noise is attributed to the environment. Thus, noise includes distractions such as a loud siren; personal factors such as prejudices; and semantic factors such as uncertainty about what another person’s words are supposed to mean (Gamble, M & Gamble, T 2005, Communication Works, 9^th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York.)

Therefore, apart from plain noise emanating from environs, the other ‘noises’ have a probable role in de-shaping the message people want to put across. If such ‘noise’ interferes in the shouting, then shouting is reduced just to a meaningless noise. It cannot be a communication that will reveal truth in its chaste form, and latch on a profundity to reckon with.

Still, if shouting has come to stay as an extension of the public sphere, let everyone get a chance to shout. That is the reviled upshot free speech entails us to tolerate. So, from streets to newspaper columns, television studios, courts to parliaments—let shouting prevail lest it proves to be an occasional storm in a teacup. Or just a litany of shrill histrionics, decoded differently by different communication receivers and senders.