# silent majority (unheard)

*Ordinarily means:* a large part of the public said to hold views it does not express loudly

A collective self that divides into an in-group and an out-group: most members, read as agreeing without saying so, against a few who say otherwise.

- Computed level: L17 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [collective self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-collective-self.shared), [boundary](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boundary.limit), [in-group](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-in-group.inside), [out-group](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-out-group.outside), [agreement](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-agreement.social), [says](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-says.speech), [division](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-division.process), [member](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-member.social), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [against](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-against.opposition)

**Through:** Because the in-group is defined as the members who do not speak, its view cannot be checked, so whoever names it can read the group as agreeing with them.

**Novel properties:**
- an in-group defined by not speaking
- a majority whose view is read and not heard

## Examples
- In a televised address on 3 November 1969, Richard Nixon asked 'the great silent majority' of Americans to support his Vietnam policy. *(politics)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-silent-majority.unheard*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-silent-majority.unheard.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*