The sound of silence .... People talking without speaking

What do the lyrics of "The Sound of Silence" by Paul Simon mean?

Most of Paul Simon's song are intensely personal, yet he manages to write lyrics in such a way that they don't come across mawkish or self-pitying. For instance, The Boxer was written at a time when Simon was feeling particularly beaten up by the music business.

In The Sound of Silence he was expressing his angst toward his, and other's, feelings of alienation in a post-modern world. Part of this alienation is viewed as a result of our inability to communicate effectively with one another, combined with our ready acceptance of thought and opinion as provided by the mass media. He also alludes that this is a result of our desire for, edging on addiction of, comfort as a result of our own affluence.

He uses an almost biblical suggestion in the passage,

And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people maybe more.

This is a suggestion he will use again, to great effect. He goes on the reveal what he believes is our inability, or unwillingness to communicate with one another, saying,

People talking without speaking. People hearing without listening. People writing songs that voices never shared.

He also observes the populous, in general, is unwilling to take a stand against this norm. A sort of "don't rock the boat" mentality, saying,

No one dared disturb the sound of silence.

He writes from the point of view of an observer who sees what is going on, and yet is equally unable to express his views in such a way that is of any effect.

"Fools!", said I. "Do you not know silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words so I might teach you. Take my arms so might reach you." but my words like silent raindrops fell.

He then affixes the blame for the way thing are. What I find to be the most striking part of the song is the fact that rather than pointing at an outside force, he places the blame the this dilemma squarely on our shoulders.

And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made. 

Again, using a biblical suggestions to convey feeling of dread.

The narrator then warns us that this situation, left unaltered, will lead to our destruction.

And the sign flashed it's warning in the words that it was forming. There are shades of Dickens' A Christmas Carol here, in which the ghost of Christmas future reveals to Scrooge the eventual path of his actions.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, he alludes that this situation may have resulted from our own affluence, saying,

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wall and tenement halls."

Keep in mind, this was written at a time when there was a great disillusionment in our society, and dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Those who were clinging onto the values of the 1950s were out of step, yet still a formidable force in government.

We were involved in an ever escalating war, with no clear objectives, allied to a government that was as evil as the ones or father's had fought against.

President Kennedy was recently assassinated, leaving many of the new generation to whom the torch had been passed feeling disenfranchised.

It wouldn't be long before an entire generation was ready to reject their parent's middle class values.

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comment 1.

This is a great song that I love, and it is very intelligent and poetic. The song uses the imagery of light and darkness to show how people's ignorance and apathy destroys their ability to communicate even on simple levels.  
Its theme is man's inability to communicate with man. The author sees the extent of communication as it is on only its most superficial and "commercial" level (of which the "neon sign" is representative). There is no serious understanding because there is no serious communication - "people talking without speaking - hearing without listening". 
No one dares take the risk of reaching out ("take my arms that I might reach you")
to disturb the sound of silence. The poet's (character in the song) attempts are equally futile (" . . . but my words like silent raindrops fell within the wells of silence"). 
The ending is an enigma. The words tell us that when meaningful communication fails, the only sound is silence. 

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comment 2

I feel it is an allusion to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." While the ideas of commercialism 
(the people bow and pray to a neon god they made, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, etc) 
run throughout the poem, it also has to do with a frustration the narrator feels with humans in general. They are content to "hear without listening," not willing or interested in focusing on anyone or anything too intently. They are not willing to go beyond the superficial, but merely to accept the world around them, as no one "dares disturb the sounds of silence."

The allusion comes into play in the beginning, as the narrator has a revelation, a vision, that awakes him from this superficial, merely shadowed world. He rises, walks alone as the man in Plato's story did, and he sees the light. He tries to tempt others out of the cave of ignorance and look beyond teh surface of things, but his "words like silent raindrops" fall. His attempts are futile.

That's what I got out of the song, my two cents ^_^ An amazing song no matter how you interpret it!