Present and past is showing us that in the majority of cases small groups, usually those that do care (I am reluctant of calling them extremists because not all of them are like that) are those that taking action and usually changing the face of the history.
From the early says of Judaism, to Christianity, to the crusaders, the Emancipation days, the Bolsheviks, the Nazis and the Zionism (It is only incidentally that N&Z are coming close to each other). The few were those that were making the difference. In some cases they have created a movement of followers though.

Look around you, who is making the noises, positive, and negative (The color is in the eye of the beholder) and therefore influencing the national agenda, only relatively small groups from the Left and Right. The majority, the silent majority is as the impression implies, silent.
Sure the silent majority read newspapers, watching TV, talking and arguing about the news among them but actually only in a passive manner.

Well, actually I am not surprise. That is the way we were brought to the world, not everybody is having the internal structure to make the change and the difference and we are the reflection of the common human nature. Therefore I am not attaching a negative connotation (or positive) to the passive majority, only noting a fact.