The silent majority is an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly.[1] The term was popularized by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a November 3, 1969, speech in which he said, "And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support."[2] In this usage it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not join in the counterculture, and who did not participate in public discourse. Nixon along with many others saw this group of Middle Americans as being overshadowed in the media by the more vocal minority.
In 1967, labor leader George Meany asserted that those labor unionists (such as himself) who supported the Vietnam War were "the vast, silent majority in the nation."[12][13] Meany's statement may have provided Nixon's speechwriters with the specific turn of phrase.[14]
In the months leading up to Nixon's 1969 speech, his vice-president Spiro T. Agnew said on May 9, "It is time for America's silent majority to stand up for its rights, and let us remember the American majority includes every minority. America's silent majority is bewildered by irrational protest..."[5]
Thirty-five years later, Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan recalled using the phrase in a memo to the president. He explained how Nixon singled out the phrase and went on to make use of it in his speech: "We [had] used 'forgotten Americans' and 'quiet Americans' and other phrases. And in one memo I mentioned twice the phrase 'silent majority,' and it's double-underlined by Richard Nixon, and it would pop up in 1969 in that great speech that basically made his presidency." Buchanan noted that while he had written the memo that contained the phrase, "Nixon wrote that speech entirely by himself."[15]
Mette Høeg taler om sine anonyme tilhængere i mail-interview på politiken.dk:
»Jeg taler ikke om et miljø som sådan. Det er ikke min opfattelse, at der findes et etableret konkurrerende litterært miljø til miljøet omkring forfatterskolen, dets elever og fans. Men igennem min flerårige forskning i blandt andet skandinavisk litteratur har jeg registreret, at der findes en stor gruppe af litterært engagerede og involverede, som ikke identificerer sig med og ikke finder de diskurser og udtryk, som miljøet udspringende fra Forfatterskolen determinerer, interessante eller vedkommende«.
»Som reaktion på artiklen har jeg modtaget overordentlig mange private beskeder fra fagpersoner, jeg ikke kender personligt – journalister, forfattere, debattører, politikere, ph.d.’er, post doc’er og professorer – der bakker op om og sympatiserer med de perspektiver, jeg fremlægger i min artikel, og som giver udtryk for, hvor tiltrængt perspektivet er. De færreste ønsker imidlertid at udtrykke sig i offentligheden, fordi det miljø, der henvises til i artiklen, er så stærkt og aggressivt i forsvaret mod enhver udfordring, at kritikeren risikerer at blive lynchet. Dertil har jeg modtaget henvendelser fra en lang række privatpersoner, der rapporterer, at perspektiverne i artiklen deles i mange kredse i landet – f.eks. hos dansklærere på landets gymnasier«.
