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Silence and Denial in Everyday Life
Oxford University Press
April 2006
176 pages ISBN: 0195187172 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The fable of the Emperor's New Clothes is a classic example
of a conspiracy of silence, a situation where everyone
refuses to acknowledge an obvious truth. But the denial of
social realities--whether incest, alcoholism, corruption, or
even genocide--is no fairy tale. In The Elephant in the Room, Eviatar Zerubavel sheds new
light on the social and political underpinnings of silence
and denial--the keeping of "open secrets." The author shows
that conspiracies of silence exist at every level of
society, ranging from small groups to large corporations, from
personal friendships to politics. Drawing on examples from
newspapers and comedy shows to novels, children's stories,
and film, the book travels back and forth across different
levels of social life, and from everyday moments to
large-scale historical events. At its core, The Elephant in
the Room
helps us understand why we ignore truths that are known to
all of us. Zerubavel shows how such conspiracies evolve,
illuminating the social pressures that cause people to deny
what is right before their eyes. We see how each
conspirator's denial is symbiotically complemented by the
others', and we
learn that silence is usually more intense when there are
more people conspiring--and especially when there are
significant power differences among them. He concludes by
showing that the longer we ignore "elephants," the larger
they loom in our minds, as each avoidance triggers an even
greater
spiral of denial.
Social life in families, organizations, communities and even
entire nations is full of situations where the emperor has
no clothes. The Elephant in the Room illuminates the
dynamics behind these situations, revealing why we ignore
obvious and alarming realities.
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