Just because somebody shouts loudly in your inbox does not mean that that they are entitled to be heard. Often, it is in fact a good indicator that they are not worth listening to.

The idea of silence as a commons, as Illich described it here, suggests to a me shared space into which you and I might enter and have just as much of a chance of being heard as anyone else. Technologies that augment the human voice empower those who possess them at the expense of those who do not, setting off the escalatory dynamics that eventuall... See more

I almost never want to step up on a stage, pick up a microphone, and announce what I’m thinking to everyone I know. And so, I almost never Tweet.

Nor do most people. The vast majority of us sit back and consume.

And that’s great if the goal is to numb our mind safter a long day of work. Or if it’s to keep up on news.

But insofar as the point of

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There seem to be two distinct concerns for Illich. The first is that we lose the commons of which silence is an integral part and thus a measure of freedom and agency. The second, concurrent with the first, is that you and I may find it increasingly hard to be heard even as we are given more and more tools with which to speak. Alternatively, we mig... See more