Why We Should Still Do Moments of Silence After Tragedies (And 7 Ways to Design Them Better)
“A key characteristic of rituals is that they are symbolic, or in the words of behavioral scientist and ritual expert Nick Hobson, ‘partially lacking direct instrumental purpose.’ A ritual is a ritual not in spite of the fact it’s functionally opaque, but because of it. I believe Rep. Himes, Rep. Crow and others are calling on us not to abolish our national rituals of mourning, but to reclaim them. It’s not that they believe symbols are useless, only that the meaning of these symbols have been transformed through decades of misuse.
Silence has shifted from a symbol of inexpressible grief to a symbol of negligence and inaction. Lowering the flag has been distorted from a symbol of national mourning to a symbol of lowering our expectations for change.”