Silence is alcohol
-Sapardi Djoko Damono

Silence is the world of the Sufi. There, it can intoxicate. Perhaps the soul is so pervasive that the boundary between the 'I' and the 'not-I', the conscious and the unconscious, is blurred there. In Sapardi Djoko Damono's poem Pada Suatu Malam (One Night) the effect of silence is compared to alcohol that is unseen but enjoyed until caution disappears.

I think this is why silence is shunned. Those who shun i