Why can’t silence be a legitimate option when it comes to writing opinion?
I don’t simply mean a chance not to write, though, in some instances, it would not just be a hope that some people would choose that option but a preference; a welcome alternative to some of the glib, contrary, and downright wrong arguments raised in the endless hunt for clickbait. But what I am talking about is a proper silence that stands for something meaningful. A well-contemplated silence. A deliberate, respectful silence. The silence that accompanies the complete absence of words. It would be a silence that artfully conveys that feeling of abandonment one has when trying to track world events only to find no insight worth sharing.
How, for example, does one begin to have some insight into Hamas’s assault on Israel’s civilian population, which left 1200 dead this weekend, with an equal number now thought to have died in Israel’s response?