Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out

Is it true that “if you want to get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore”?

The film “Small Things Like These” is a powerful examination of the price of staying silent, or the price to pay for speaking truth to power.

AI (Gemini) summary:

In the film Small Things Like These, the theme of silence and complicity is central to Bill Furlong’s moral struggle. His wife, Eileen, captures the town’s survivalist mindset when she tells him, “If you want to get on in life, there are certain things you have to ignore.”

Abridged Summary of the Theme

The film explores the “price” of a stable, middle-class life in a community controlled by a powerful institution (the Catholic Church). To “get on”—meaning to keep your job, educate your children, and maintain social standing—you must agree to a collective blindness. The community knows about the suffering of the women in the Magdalene Laundries, but they treat this knowledge as a dangerous secret.

To speak up is to risk everything you have worked to build.

Application in General Life

This message reflects the “Social Contract of Silence“ found in many modern environments:

• Corporate Culture:
  Employees often ignore unethical shortcuts or toxic behavior by leadership to protect their career progression and “get on” the corporate ladder.
• Social Circles:
  People may overlook a friend’s or relative’s harmful behavior to avoid “making a scene” or losing their place in a comfortable social group.
• Systemic Injustice:
  We often ignore the “unseen” labor or suffering that provides us with cheap goods or services because acknowledging it would require us to change our lifestyle or face uncomfortable truths. 

Speaking Truth to Power

The film suggests that “truth to power” is rarely a grand, cinematic speech; it is a disruptive choice that breaks the equilibrium of a community.

• Power relies on the “Quiet Agreement”:
  Institutions maintain control not just through force, but through the fear that speaking out will result in isolation.
• The Weight of the “Small Thing”:
  Speaking truth means noticing the “small things” (a girl locked in a shed, a whispered plea) that the powerful want you to treat as insignificant. Bill Furlong realizes that by ignoring the truth, he is not just staying safe—he is becoming an accomplice.

 The Message of Suffering

The film’s ending is poignant because it doesn’t promise a “happily ever after.” By choosing to help, Bill knows he is walking toward “a world of trouble.” We can derive three key messages from the suffering that follows truth-telling:

1. Integrity over Comfort:
   Suffering is the price of a clear conscience. Bill asks himself if he can “face himself in the mirror” if he does nothing. The suffering of social ostracization is portrayed as more bearable than the internal rot of silence.
2. The Cost of Change:
   Significant change rarely happens without someone being willing to lose their “place” in the current system.
3. Humanity as a Shared Burden:
   By choosing to suffer alongside the oppressed, you reclaim your own humanity. Bill’s act of “small” heroism is a refusal to let the powerful dictate who is worthy of concern.

Are there any famous books on the theme of “collective blindness” and “a social contract of silence” and how we address that for a better world?

The theme of collective blindness—where a whole community chooses not to see what is right in front of them—is a powerful literary tradition.

The following books explore how a “social contract of silence” forms, the devastating cost of maintaining it, and the courage required to break it.

1. Blindness as a Metaphor for Society

• “Blindness” by José Saramago:
  In this novel, a city is struck by a “white blindness” epidemic. It isn’t just a medical thriller; it is a deep dive into how quickly social structures and morality collapse when people lose their ability to “see” each other’s humanity. It illustrates that society only functions when we acknowledge the truth of our neighbor’s condition.
• “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen:
  While a children’s story, this is the quintessential text on the Social Contract of Silence. The entire kingdom “sees” the king is naked, but they agree to praise his clothes to avoid being labeled “unfit for office.” It shows that it often takes the smallest, least “powerful” voice (a child) to break a massive lie. 

2. The Cost of “Getting On” and Complicity

• “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro:
  A perfect companion to Small Things Like These. Stevens, a butler, spends his life ignoring his master’s Nazi sympathies because he believes his “duty” is to serve without question. He realizes too late that by ignoring the truth to be a “great butler,” he lost his own humanity.
• “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson:
  This short story explores how a community can commit a horrific act annually simply because “that’s the way it’s always been.” No one speaks up because the tradition provides a dark sense of stability, and the risk of being the next victim keeps everyone silent.

3. Addressing the Theme for a “Better World”

• “The Burden of Conscience” by Henry A. Giroux (2024):
  A more contemporary non-fiction work that explicitly discusses how “organized forgetting” and the “veil of silence” allow fascism and injustice to rise. Giroux argues that education and the refusal to be silent are the only ways to resist.
• “Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out” by Walter Brueggemann:
  This book looks at the biblical and historical roots of silence as a tool used by the powerful. It argues that the act of “crying out”—breaking the silence—is the first necessary step toward any social or divine justice.
• “Truth to Power: How to Call Time on Bullshit, Speak Up and Change The World” by Jess Phillips:
  A practical, modern handbook on the mechanics of speaking out. It discusses the “accidental heroes” who risk their comfort and careers to blow the whistle on systemic failures.

Tell me more about “Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out”

In “Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out” (2018), the renowned biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann tackles the exact tension you noticed in Small Things Like These.

Brueggemann argues that there are two types of silence: the “good” silence of awe and prayer, and the “bad” silence of coercion, which is used by those in power to maintain the status quo. He suggests that in the Bible, God is almost always on the side of the person who breaks that second kind of silence.

Here are the core arguments of the book:

1. Silence as a Tool of the “Empire”

Brueggemann explains that powerful institutions (what he often calls “the Empire”) rely on a “monopoly of speech.” If you can control what people talk about, you can control what they think is possible.

• The “Quiet Agreement”:
  Like the town in the film, the “Empire” creates an environment where staying quiet is equated with being a “good citizen” or a “faithful person.”
• Economic Control:
  He links silence to economics, arguing that those who benefit from the current system use silence to prevent the “labor-exploiting” or “unjust” parts of that system from being questioned. 

2. The “Cry” as the First Act of Revolution

One of the most powerful sections of the book focuses on the Exodus. He points out that the liberation of the Israelites didn’t start with a plan or a leader; it started with a groan.

• Breaking the Spell:
  When the slaves cried out, they broke the “social contract” that said their suffering was normal.
• God as a Listener:
  Brueggemann posits that God is essentially a “Listener-in-Chief.” God only acts in the story after the silence is broken. This suggests that “speaking truth to power” is a prerequisite for divine intervention or social change.

3. Jesus as a “Rude Interrupter”

Brueggemann re-examines several Gospel stories where Jesus (or those around him) acts “rudely” by social standards:

• The Syro-Phoenician Woman: She “talks back” to Jesus when he initially refuses to help her. By breaking the silence of her “place” as a Gentile woman, she actually changes Jesus’s mind and expands his mission.
• Blind Bartimaeus: When the crowd tells him to be quiet (the “social contract of silence”), he shouts even louder. Brueggemann notes that the crowd represents the “silencing institution” that finds the suffering of the marginalized “inconvenient.” 

4. The Message for a “Better World”

The book concludes that the Church—and individuals—have a moral duty to be “interrupters.”

• From Contribution to Commitment: It’s not enough to just “help” the poor (a contribution); one must “speak up” against the systems that make them poor (a commitment).
• Internal Silence: He also explores how we silence ourselves through guilt or shame. Breaking that internal silence is the only way to heal.

Comparison to “Small Things Like These”

Key Takeaway:

Brueggemann’s central message is that “Silence kills.” By remaining silent to “get on in life,” we aren’t just being polite; we are actively participating in the destruction of others and ourselves.

Is our trust in our national, community and group leaders well place? If not, we have to ask ourselves what is the best way we can address that, and how can we challenge their abuse of authority effectively.