Silence is a Commons - Ivan Illich (1983)

Article Summary

The Commons Concept: Commons are shared resources maintained through community customs, distinct from economic resources
Silence as Shared Space: True silence represents a perceptual commons increasingly threatened by technological saturation
Technological Transformation: Modern technologies convert commons into commodities (water → resource, silence → measurable quiet)
Threshold Effect: Technologies become destructive when they exceed scales that undermine human autonomy
Epistemological Violence: Institutional systems destroy vernacular knowledge and community-based learning
Environmental Parallels: Similar processes threaten physical commons (air, water) and perceptual commons (silence, darkness)
Convivial Alternative: Calls for technologies that enhance human relationships rather than creating dependencies

I will speak about the destruction of those conditions that until recently have rendered silence possible. I will argue that silence is now a consumer good or service, and that its relationship to the commons must be understood if we want to retain the competence for hearing and producing silence.

The issue I address is analogous to that of the soil. Soil can be used either as the foundation for a house or as a waste dump. Similarly, the commons can be understood as the soil which provides people with the necessary condition to live in community.

"Commons" is an Old English word. According to my late friend, Professor Kōsō Mochizuki, it corresponds to what Japanese historians call "Iriai."

I will argue that modern technology has deprived people of the commons just as it has deprived them of silence. The environmental movement has made us aware that certain physical commons are threatened: water, air, soil. But there is also a perceptual commons that includes silence. And silence as a commons is today as threatened as nature.

The threshold between commons and resources is not always clear. But we can say that the commons is always local, while resources are valued in abstract economic terms. Silence is a commons that cannot be measured like "quiet," which is a resource defined by the absence of decibels.

"People must recognize silence as the condition which enables them to hear and be heard."

I propose that we recognize three fundamental commons:

1. The soil on which we stand

2. The perceptual commons that includes silence

3. The vernacular commons of language and custom

The industrialization of perception through radio, television, and now computers threatens silence as a commons. Sound pollution is not just noise; it's the colonization of the auditory space.

"The issue is not noise, but the loss of the commons in which alone either speech or silence can be generated."

We must protect the commons against being turned into resources. This requires recognizing the threshold beyond which tools become destructive. We need technologies that are convivial - those that enhance human relationships rather than creating dependencies.

In conclusion, silence as a commons must be recognized and protected if we are to maintain the human capacity for perception, contemplation, and genuine communication.