THE ETHICS OF ATTENTION TO SUFFERING: BETWEEN SILENCE AND NOISE
I am haunted by the deafening silence surrounding Iran, just as I am haunted by every silence where there should be outrage, and by every eruption of hysteria where there should, instead, be restraint and reflection. And this silence does not come from the uninformed. It comes from those who know. Intellectuals, students, activists, political voices fully aware of what is unfolding; voices that in other circumstances would rush to indignation, even at the cost of simplification, now choose caution, restraint, or complete muteness in the face of Iran’s brutal repression. The numbers alone should shatter complacency. Thousands have been killed. Arrests and executions have escalated. State censorship, communication blackouts, and the exclusion of independent observers make definitive counts impossible, but what is already known is enough to reveal the scale of the tragedy. And yet this reality is met with a disturbing quiet. Many within the new left—so quick to condemn oth...
