Why Ignore the Elephant?

We've all heard the expression, "There's an elephant in the room". We all know it means that we're ignoring the uncomfortable, unpalatable, obvious problem. But why do we do it?

One answer is politeness. We (as a group) all know that Suzy is an insufferable bore, who drones on and on about nothing of interest, but no one ever mentions it to Suzy. We don't want to hurt her feelings.

How about fear? We don't know what the outcome would be if we talked about the elephant, so we clam up. A good (hypothetical) example of this is the couple we're friends with, and the husband beats his wife, and we never say anything, even though we know they both need help.

I'm sure there are other reasons to keep quiet about the elephant, but as for me, I am neither polite nor fearful, and so these postings will expose the elephants in our midst. As they say down East, "I'll be sailing too close to the wind". I hope you join me for the ride.