Conspiracy of silence (expression)

A conspiracy of silence, or culture of silence, describes the behavior of a group of people of some size, as large as an entire national group or profession or as small as a group of colleagues, that by unspoken consensus does not mention, discuss, or acknowledge a given subject. The practice may be motivated by positive interest in group solidarity or by such negative impulses as fear of political repercussion or social ostracism. It differs from avoiding a taboo subject in that the term is applied to more limited social and political contexts rather than to an entire culture. As a descriptor, conspiracy of silence implies dishonesty, sometimes cowardice, sometimes privileging loyalty to one social group over another. As a social practice, it is rather more extensive than the use of euphemisms to avoid addressing a topic directly.

Some instances of such a practice are sufficiently well-known or enduring to become known by their own specific terms, including Code of silence for the refusal of law enforcement officers to speak out against crimes committed by fellow officers and omertà, cultural code of organized crime in Sicily.

Examples

Examples of the use of the term vary widely and include:

• An 1854 report on unrest in Hungary said the rulers of the Austrian Empire were powerless because "It cannot keep up its infamous rule, but by terror. There is a conspiracy without any doubt spread over the whole country–the conspiracy of silence and watchful expectation....[W]e will patiently await the right moment, and then rise as one man."^[1]
• In 1885, London's Pall Mall Gazette reported that prominent men were patronizing brothels. When authorities accused the paper of obscenity and tried to block its distribution, the paper's editors thanked them for "thereby breaking the conspiracy of silence maintained by the press concerning [their] revelations".^[2]
• A conference of social workers and medical personnel in 1936 urged greater efforts to prevent the spread of syphilis by New York City and state. An official of the federal government said they needed to bring the problems "out in the open" to overcome a "conspiracy of silence" that prevented public education efforts.^[3]
• On 19 March 1937, Pope Pius XI used the term in his encyclical Divini Redemptoris to characterize the failure of the non-Catholic press in Western Europe and the U.S. to cover the persecution of Christians in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mexico, and Spain.^[4]
• Between 1972 and 1994, members of the Charlestown community in Massachusetts were unwilling to share information that would facilitate homicide investigations because of their reliance on vigilante justice, fear of retaliation by criminals, and anti-police sentiment.^[5]
• Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis (2006), a book criticizing the activities of Christian churches.
• Conspiracy of Silence, a 2004 film drama about the sexual activity of some Irish Roman Catholic clergy.^[6]
• Political adversaries, according to the New York Times in 2013, sometimes agree to avoid topics they all find difficult: "But on one topic, there was a conspiracy of silence: Republicans and Democrats agreed that they did not really want to talk about the Iraq war."^[7]
• Co-workers avoid criticizing a colleague, for example pilots do not report another pilot's alcohol problem: "There is a conspiracy of silence among macho men: 'Don't rat on your buddy.'"^[8]
• The unspoken agreement of journalists and media outlets to suppress coverage of topics that their readers, advertisers, or sources prefer to avoid. Chris Lamb's Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball describes the consistent refusal of white sportswriters to report the decades-long efforts to integrate professional baseball in the United States.^[9]

See also

• Crowd psychology
• Esprit de corps
• Groupthink
• Memory hole
• Omertà
• Risk society
• Self-censorship
• Social control
• Spiral of silence
• Stop Snitchin'
• Turning a blind eye

References

1. "State of Public Feeling among the Hungarian People". New York Times. 8 March 1854. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
2. "Stirring London's People". New York Times. 10 July 1885. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
3. "Wider Drive Urged on Social Disease". New York Times. 16 January 1936. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
4. Divini Redemptoris, Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on Atheistic Communism, § 18: "A third powerful factor in the diffusion of Communism is the conspiracy of silence on the part of a large section of the non-Catholic press of the world." Accessed 17 July 2014.
5. "The code of silence is cracked in Charlestown". Boston Globe. October 29, 1993. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
6. Gates, Anita (December 3, 2004). "Sex, Conspiracy and Suicide: Just Another Day at Church". New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
7. Baker, Peter (March 19, 2013). "Iraq War’s 10th Anniversary Is Barely Noted in Washington". New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
8. Weiner, Eric (July 14, 1990). "Drunken Flying Persists Despite Treatment Effort". New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
9. "Professor Publishes Book Concerning the Media and Baseball Desegregation". The College Today (The College of Charleston). April 23, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2015.