# "Silent Majority" -- evolution of the term **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651 "2006-01-12T13:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/1 "2006-01-12T13:43:43Z")
In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353694)thread on conservative reaction to the Stones tune “Sympathy for the Devil,” I refer to the term “Silent Majority” in post #2, then **China Guy** and **Diceman** come back to the point (see posts 17 through 20). I’m not insisting I’m right (obviously I was very careless in my offhand reference in post 2), but I really don’t recall it being used as a religious referent against the Christians, or as a label for either side in the abortion debate. Does anyone have any info on the early use and/or evolution of the term? **Samclem** , I’m lookin’ hopefully (yay! I love being able to use that word right!) at you. TIA ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/2 "2006-01-12T14:20:38Z")
[ > [@](#): > > The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. > > silent majority > > A term used by President Richard Nixon to indicate his belief that the great body of Americans supported his policies and that those who demonstrated against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War amounted to only a noisy minority. ]([http://www.bartleby.com/59/12/silentmajori.html](http://www.bartleby.com/59/12/silentmajori.html)) [The speech](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixongreatsilentmajority.html)"…So tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support…" ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/3 "2006-01-12T15:48:12Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > [ > > [URL=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixongreatsilentmajority.html]The speech]([http://www.bartleby.com/59/12/silentmajori.html](http://www.bartleby.com/59/12/silentmajori.html))"…So tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support…" Delivered 3 November 1969. “Sympathy for the Devil” appeared in December 1968, so it preceded the first use of the term (at least, the way Nixon used it). Early on, “Silent Majority” was definitely used in the context of support for the Vietnam War. Later it was extended to cultural issues. At least at first, it did not have any specific religious connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/4 "2006-01-12T16:08:18Z")
I don’t recall the term “silent majority” ever being used to refer to one’s religious beliefs. Can anyone give us a citation otherwise (particularly one from the 1960’s)? I think you’re confusing it with the term “moral majority,” which didn’t appear until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/5 "2006-01-12T16:15:58Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > I don’t recall the term “silent majority” ever being used to refer to one’s religious beliefs. Can anyone give us a citation otherwise (particularly one from the 1960’s)? I think you’re confusing it with the term “moral majority,” which didn’t appear until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. I think you may have put your finger on the confusion between the terms. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/6 "2006-01-12T16:20:09Z")
Yeah, and I may have contributed to the confusion by the way I phrased my first reference: > [@](#): > > There was no organized Christian Right at that time – they were still known as the Silent Majority in those halcyon days. The Christian Right as a movement started more late '70s, early '80s with Jerry Falwell (“The Moral Majority”). Thanks, all. (BTW, :smack: on my Nixon/Agnew confusion – I guess that makes me a nattering nabob…) ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/7 "2006-01-12T17:15:20Z")
I started my search with [url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=silent+majority&searchmode=none]Online Etymology Dictionary{/url]: > [@](#): > > Silent majority in the political sense of “mass of people whose moderate views are not publicly expressed and thus overlooked” is first attested 1955 in a British context and was used by John F. Kennedy but is most associated in U.S. with the rhetoric of the Nixon administration (1969-74). > > ``` > "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." [Spiro T. Agnew, May 9, 1969] > > ``` > > In Victorian use, the phrase meant “the dead” (1874). Since they don’t provide pre-Nixonian citations, I will: > [@](#): > > “The King in his natural optimism still believed that a silent majority in Scotland were in his favour.” – C.V. Wedgwood, The King’s Peace, 1637-41, 1955. > > “They were not all right or all conservatives or all liberals. Some of them may have been representing the actual sentiments of the silent majority of their constituents in opposition to the screams of a vocal minority, but most of them were not.” – John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 1956. Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to Google up Victorian cites, unless you have apretty specific source in mind Incidentally, the phrase would probably have been somewhat obvious to parliamentarians or any regular user of Roberts Rules of Order. Silent majorities aren’t just a theoretical constructs, they are common, visible fact of committees and deliberative groups (though in my experience, application of the silent majority rule often leads a group astray over time, partly because it only encourages more silence and further disregard of rules.) > [@](#): > > “_General Consent or Unanimous Vote._ By general, or unanimous, or silent, consent the assembly can do business with little regard for the rules of procedure…” Henry M. Robert, Robert’s Rules of Order Revised, 1915 (\* in “48. Motions requiring more than a Majority Vote” under subheading “Majority vote” And while it is of no possible interest to anyone by me, the phrease always reminds me of a term I once had to defend to an editor, who claimed it wouldn’t have been recognizable in 1978 (the year of a novel I was writing). The term “factoid” (peculiarly appropriate ro the SD) wasn’t an invention of CNN or any TV outlet. Norman Mailer used it in the bestseller Marilyn (1973) “Factoids … that is, facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.” TV may have popularized it, but if that’s the new criterion, we may as well concede the entire field of literature to TV, given how few hours the average man spends reading literature vs. watching TV. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/8 "2006-01-12T17:19:38Z")
Ha! Agnew did use it – and before Nixon! Excellent post, **KP** – thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/9 "2006-01-12T17:28:06Z")
I remember a _Laugh-In_ bit that started ‘I’m Susie Sorority of the Silent Majority.’ But I don’t remember the rest. ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/10 "2006-01-12T21:39:53Z")
> [@KP](#): > > Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to Google up Victorian cites, unless you have apretty specific source in mind A cursory search on [newspaperarchive.com](http://newspaperarchive.com) shows that Victorian usage does mean “dead people.” An 1888 usage by General Sherman is in that context. But a 1942 use in the Lima, Ohio, News is closer to the current meaning: “The talkative man is little to be feared - but be wary of the silent one! He belongs in the Silent Majority, which all history has proved to be the conquering majority.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/11 "2006-01-12T22:38:16Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I remember a _Laugh-In_ bit that started ‘I’m Susie Sorority of the Silent Majority.’ But I don’t remember the rest. Think of it as an earlier version of Stephen Colbert’s right-wing blowhard character. Lily Tomlin used Susie Sorority’s approval of everything the Silent Majority stood for as a way of mocking their mind-set. The rest of this thread is an excellent example of the differences in the way **samclem** and I approach word origins. He’s concerned with coinages and the way words first appear in a language on their way to the current range of meanings. I look at them more sociologically and try to spot when they first blossomed into the public consciousness. Silent Majority is just such a term. There may be dozens of earlier uses over decades, but it is crucial to note that the term reached historic status when used by and associated with the Nixon administration. **crowmanyclouds** has that meaning defined exactly as how I remember it. Similarly, I know “factoid” was used originally as a _false_ fact, made seemingly true by repetition. Culturally, however, it became associated with USA Today and the way it once emphasized facts for their own sake in colorful charts and graphs. (Not CNN or TV. Very specifically, USA Today.) English speakers don’t give a hang (or a hoot, or a whit, or other term for insignificance) about a term’s origin. If a word is hanging in the aether and sounds like it could apply, it’ll be applied. I find that the fascinating aspect of language, though I heartily applaud the origin researchers for their critical work as well. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/12 "2006-01-13T09:23:51Z")
> [@](#): > > “They were not all right or all conservatives or all liberals. Some of them may have been representing the actual sentiments of the silent majority of their constituents in opposition to the screams of a vocal minority, but most of them were not.” – John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 1956. Who is the “they” that JFK is referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/13 "2006-01-15T13:08:51Z")
I think it should be mentioned that there’s another reason that no one in the 1960’s would have used the term “Silent Majority” in relation with anything to do with religion. It’s often not mentioned in the depictions of the 1960’s and early 1970’s anti-war movement that we see these days, but much of this movement came from religious sources. There were a lot of people in the anti-war movement who were very religious and derived their anti-war feelings from their religious beliefs. The notion that religious people were mostly conservative didn’t become the standard idea until at least the late 1970’s. That doesn’t necessarily mean that religious people are really any more liberal or more conservative these days than they were in the 1960’s or that non-religious people today are really any more liberal or more conservative than they were then. The public face of Christianity is more conservative these days though. Publicly, people back then had plenty of public images of hip, liberal ministers and priests. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/14 "2006-01-15T16:03:23Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > There were a lot of people in the anti-war movement who were very religious and derived their anti-war feelings from their religious beliefs. Notably the Berrigan brothers, Dan and Phil, both of whom were Catholic priests (and also on the FBI “Most Wanted” list for war protests). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/15 "2006-01-15T17:43:41Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Who is the “they” that JFK is referring to? The politicians profiled in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/16 "2006-01-15T19:42:40Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Delivered 3 November 1969. “Sympathy for the Devil” appeared in December 1968, so it preceded the first use of the term (at least, the way Nixon used it). No one claimed that the term “silent majority” was used in the lyrics of the song _Sympathy for the Devil_. And [it’s not](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling-stones/117881.html). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/17 "2006-01-15T20:33:42Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > No one claimed that the term “silent majority” was used in the lyrics of the song _Sympathy for the Devil_. And [it’s not](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling-stones/117881.html). Of course, neither did I (and I know the lyrics pretty much by heart). Since the OP specifically referenced the song, I thought it was worth pointing out that the song came out before the term became a political catchphrase. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-majority-evolution-of-the-term/339651/18 "2006-01-15T20:39:55Z")
Someone (don’t know who) pointed out in the early 1970s that classical writers used “silent majority” to refer to the dead.