Mihai, Mihaela, “The Hero’s Silences: Vulnerability, Complicity, Ambivalence” – 2021

In this article, political scientist Mihaela Mihai analyses the notion and practice of silence under totalitarian regimes, seeking to complicate the idea that ‘silence is complicity’ in the violence afflicting individuals in those contexts. Individuals who practice silence are perceived as beneficiaries of others’ suffering. It is also deemed passive, or even cowardly, a trait of the bystander. Mihai explains that in public discourses in post-totalitarian societies, silence as complicity is considered in opposition to speaking out against – and thus actively resisting – repressive power structures. The article makes evident the tendencies to glorify individuals who resist authoritarian regimes as heroes, as perfect examples of ethical action for the sake of one’s community and of one’s nation, wholly devoted to their freedom and averse to injustice.

However, Mihai sets out to humanize such heroes, and, in turn, to explore the heroism of average citizens. In connection to the latter, she explores the powerful and potentially paralyzing power of national myths about the flawless and selfless dissident who speaks up and acts against oppression in the name of the nation. Such narratives fail to account for the limitations of humans, for instance for the fact that some decisions and resistance strategies result from fear. In the face of such myths, individuals consider themselves inadequate, unworthy of the status of hero, and experience paralysis in repressive situations that could be countered by their political action. This idea motivates Mihai’s inquiry into how heroes, too, utilize silence under totalitarian regimes. She investigates the strategic ways in which individuals employ silence to protect themselves and their community from the perpetrator, and that this silence does not necessarily indicate one’s complicity or ambivalence to the repressive reality, but that it is part of a continuum in which action, speaking, and silence are used interchangeably as tools for dissent.

In her argument, Mihai draws on the work of philosopher Judith Butler on the compatibility of vulnerability and resistance. She indicates that Butler’s conception of dissent is tied to a person’s relationality, as one’s ties to other human beings are what encourage one’s ethical orientation and action in the face of injustice. Thus, Mihai contends, the hero is a product of their positionality, as their connections to others constitute their vulnerabilities, and, ultimately, their impetus for resisting a regime that would inflict harm. To exemplify the workings of positionality and heroism, as well as how relationality drives heroes into silence or outspoken action, Mihai refers to author Herta Müller, whose life and literary works are rife with silence, while also considered part of the anti-communist efforts in Romania. The article provides a thorough biography, as well as examples from Müller’s texts in which affect and silence interact – family ties, friendships, love, fear, and loss are indicative of the author’s positionality, as well as that of her characters, and significantly influence one’s silence. Mihai concludes that reading stories like Müller’s, in which heroes are silent, is important in redefining heroism and in bypassing the paralysis that average individuals experience when they are unable to recognize resistance as a continuum and as a human, imperfect, yet impactful phenomenon. This article is significant for perpetrator studies because of the nuanced approach towards the concept of complicity and the role that silence plays therein. 

Author of this entry: Sabria Schouten.

Mihai, Mihaela, “The Hero’s Silences: Vulnerability, Complicity, Ambivalence,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 24, no. 3 (2021): 346–367.