The elephant in the room

The Elephant in the room

 
As some of war survivors refer to their horrific time in the East of Congo death camps as the massacre identifying such euphemisms may help uncover conspiracies of silence by highlighting what they consider unmentionable. Yet a careful examination of euphemisms also seems to show that trauma is only one of the factors that produce silence. Indeed, most conspiracies of silence are generated by the two main reasons we actually use euphemisms, namely fear and embarrassment. Yet silence is also generated by the somewhat milder form of shame we call embarrassment, as when a group of scholars are asked to evaluate a well-liked yet obviously unproductive colleague, when lecturers discover incidents of work violence in their own parish, or when co-workers watch aging physicians lose their clinical touch. Consider also hushed-up instances of suicide, mental illness, or alcohol abuse within families.