De stille

 

Het debat moet gevoerd worden.
Een ernstig gesprek dringt zich op.
Alles mag gezegd worden.

De expert mag de finesse komen toelichten,
de tegenexpert mag het weerleggen,
want ook niet alle experten zijn het eens.
Jan Modaal mag zijn zegje doen,
de journalist mag het duiden,
de columnist mag het op de spits drijven,
en de genuanceerde mag de middenweg bewandelen.


Maar hoe geraken we ooit nog uit het debat?

 
In observing the present state of affairs and of life in general, from a Christian point of view one would have to say: It is a disease. And if I were a physician and someone asked me “What do you think should be done?” I would answer, “Create silence, bring about silence.”
God’s Word cannot be heard, and if in order to be heard in the hullabaloo it must be shouted deafeningly
with noisy means, then it is not God’s Word; create silence!
Ah, everything is noisy. Just as a strong drink is said to stir the blood, so everything in our day, even the most insignificant project, even the most empty communication, is designed merely to jolt the senses or to stir up the masses, the crowd, the public, noise! And we humans, we clever fellows, seem to have become sleepless in order to invent ever new means to increase noise, to spread noise and insignificance with the greatest possible ease and on the greatest possible scale. Yes, everything has been turned upside down. The means of communication have been perfected, but what is publicized with such hot haste is rubbish! Oh, create silence!
Sören Kierkegaard, "For self-examination, Recommended to the present age"


Stilte in brons gestold...

Knud Nellemose, "Kierkegaard".