We were that generation called silent, but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period's official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man's fate.

Summary

This quote suggests that the silence of the generation referred to as "silent" does not stem from a lack of optimism or fear of repression during that time. Instead, it argues that the silence arises from a different perspective. The quote implies that the generation remained silent because they viewed the exhilaration of social activism as merely a temporary distraction from the existential dread and the inherent meaninglessness of existence. Hence, rather than engaging in collective action, they chose to confront their individual fears and confront the existential anxieties head-on.

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