Truth Decay to Truthless: Trust requires faith in the Truth- and truth in faith.

 

Truth Decay to Truthless: Trust requires faith in the Truth- and truth in faith.   

On President Trump’s Inauguration Day in January 2017 Time magazine printed its cover story in the same style it did exactly 50 years earlier.  Back then instead of their cover page being a picture of a person or important discovery it only had a thin red border around a solid black page - with just three words “Is God Dead”.   Its January 2017 the only change in the cover page was the three words.  “Is Truth Dead”.  Ironically, both cover stories asked vital questions related to humanities virtues and future.

Without truth the devolution of trust will continue dividing humanity.  This is unsustainable!  Distrust breeds separation.  This is not new.  For a millennium most human minds have increasingly separated humanity from nature and other groups.  Now it separates us from each other and even our body’s health.  Too many people ignore their body’s immune system until too late.  Yet it is arguably our body’s first line of defense against humanities greatest killer.  Pathogens have always been, and they remain so today.  Oddly, the 100 trillion microbes on and in our body make up that first line of defense protecting our inner homeostasis (healthy balance).   Our mind’s beliefs must stop undermining this self-evident truth. 

Upon reading Time’s 2017 cover page my mind jumped to the answered...No!  Then came the remembrance of ‘self-evident truths’.   And the phrase “We hold these Truths to be self-evident”.   Then I read the Declaration of Independence again.  Most Americans know its most popular phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” and remember fundamental truth of these “certain unalienable Rights”.  In my world view 30 other such rights are listed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   And these would need to be added to our U.S. Constitution if Americans were ever going to have “liberty and justice for all”.  Two fundamental elements needed and that every American has pledged before our flag hundreds of times.  But rarely ever work for.   American minds have persisted in ignoring this pledge.

But our mind’s thoughts determine most of our body’s feelings.  We might feel patriotic.  But such deceptive thoughts can lead our bodies to do many things with consequences that will not end well.   Wars, genocide, conspiracy theories, political polarization, and even to violence within our own nation, community, or family.   And contribute to other preventable, undesirable, unhealthy, and even lethal consequences, like depression, suicide, drug addiction, or obesity.

Jesus said, “the Truth will set you free”.    This spiritual truth is NOT on our mind.  Instead, our mind holds multiple untruths.  Concepts we have learned over time withing a culture or society that lacked a truthful view of reality.    

The most fundamental truth is that the mind is basically a tool that evolved in all human brains.  It evolved as the most advanced problem-solving tool on this planet.   It kept our human family and tribe alive and thriving.  It’s also true that all of us are all born with the same unalienable human rights.   

Functionally and reasonably back then, our minds divided us into specific, different, or ambiguous identities.  These distinctions originally aided in the growth of our tribe or group.   And different beliefs or inventions within that group either helped or hindered its growth.  Unfortunately, that growth in population was often associated with the evolution or extinction of other group identities.   Another fundamental principle of life is adapt or perish.  Adaptation was essential to every group’s survival.  Over time, many didn’t adapt fast enough. 

But now, it is time for everyone to adapt to the reality we have always existed in.  We all live on the same planet, and it is our home planet for now, offering all our needs and wants...but only if we take care of its basic life support systems it has given us since creation.   And to make this mental adaptation we our species must recognize that we are all 99.9% the same genetically.  And that .1% difference in our DNA is often greater within our own identity group - that between many of the others.

Given the current pace of change and the evolution of weapons, war, and pathogens, we must adapt quickly.  Because “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....” Jen Easterly. CISA director.  Oct. 29, 2021. [the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency is our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018].

In Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pamphlet printed Feb. 1776 he offered the fundamental truth that individuals need others to survive and thrive [independence is an illusion].  And we are not angels.  Thus, “the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here to is the design and end of government”  [maximizing]  “freedom and security”. 

This, however, is now unlikely in our world because it would mean speaking truth to power.  And speaking truth in some places could get someone arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or killed.  Without truth, governments information cannot be trusted.  And governments cannot trust other governments with information, simply because all governments are in constant competition to survive.   But without prioritizing the truth, that the protection of human rights and the environment is the most basic job of governments – how they function now is not unsustainable.  

Yes.  Alliances will form.  But without global unity in the fundamental purpose of government, they will continue to compete.  And their citizen masses will not be empowered to thrive in this inevitable shadow and competition, constant war, and growing debt none can sustainably afford.

In this light I now view the most important phrase in America’s declaration and war that separation us from the King.   And that declaration’s foundational reasoning or logic asserting ‘self-evident Truths’ can be found in the phrase “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” that came before those Truths.  

But the U.S. Constitution, created 11 years later has rarely codified and enforced any of these truths.  Thus, increasingly they have lost relevance.   And our persistent national prioritization of the U.S. Constitution and political parties over the freedoms and security “We the People” now for almost 250 years of elections and congresses we have still not achieved even one of the seven intentions in our U.S. Constitution’s preamble.  

Read’em and weep!  President Lincoln did.  And he called the Declaration our “Apple of Gold” and our Constitution its “Frame of Silver”.  He also said the Declaration was “for everyone, everywhere, for all time”.  

As a biologist, wrestler, and dancer I’ve learned and applied many fundamental principles about sustaining life, keeping things healthy, and the power of human agency that each of us have in our mind and body.  The power that is vital for forming and sustaining more perfect unions

As a biologist I grasp “the Laws of Nature”.  Religion I wrestled with in teaching Biology.  Until I discovered the one fundamental principle that every legitimate religion is founded on.  The golden rule! 

Now, sustaining life on this planet, and maybe humanity getting to other planets, is condensed into two simple ideals.  First, ‘take care of nature’, and second ‘take care of each other’.  Prioritizing these two simple but complicated task will empower our species with many opportunities to survive and thrive.   Another truth is that variations in our population is a “strength”.  Many minds must learn to ‘adapt’ to this reality or risk the survival of our species, or their particular clan.

The term “Truth Decay” was first introduced in the context of diminishing reliance on facts in public discourse by the RAND Corporation in their 2018 report titled “Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.” Authored by Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich, this report examines the increasing disagreement about facts, the blurring of lines between opinion and fact, the rise of opinion over fact, and declining trust in respected sources of factual information.

While the phrase “truth decay” may have appeared in other contexts prior to their publication, the 2018 RAND report is recognized for formally defining and analyzing the phenomenon as it pertains to contemporary societal and political issues.

In a new book “The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.  Francis S. Collins, MD  C-SPAN interview   https://www.c-span.org/video/?538398-1/qa-francis-collins

Doctor Collins already knew the fundamental principles of life.  And that trust is based on truth, and science is the best means of seeking for truths.  I’m certain he would agree with the objective truth that Neil deGrasse Tyson suggested is the most universal truth.  It will continue to be far more reliable in building a global consensus given the vast number of different truths people have regarding their personal religious truths and their political truths.

But even Albert Einstein recognized the fundamental importance of both science and religion.  “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”, 1941.  

Science discovers what we can do.  Religion offers the ultimate reason for doing it.  With the capacity for every technology and spoken word capable of being used to either serve humanities needs or to murder us in mass numbers, we will need religions to walk their talk on the Golden Rule.  A fundamental truth linking the human mind and heart with devotion to a higher purpose – taking care of nature and each other.

The first question the C-Span interviewer asked Dr. Collins is about a bible verse ‘Mathew, Chapter 22, verse 37.  “And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” 

Mathew Chapter 22, vs 37-39 “And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  It’s very clear that God did not want us just to be creatures of our emotions and other motivations (sex? Money?  Power?).  And the biblical the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel in in Genesis chapter 32:22–32), the angel is identified as God in other passages.

This ‘wrestling’ match was a significant event in Jacob's life that culminated in him being renamed Israel, meaning “he who struggles with God” or “God prevails.”  This can be seen as a moment of transformation, fulfilling Jacob’s desire to gain a new identity.  One that aligned with divine purpose and integrity.    It can also be interpreted as a symbolically profound inner struggle between Jacob’s mind and his body's feelings. 

From a psychological and spiritual perspective, Jacob may have been wrestling with his Identity and Guilt.  Because in much of his life he was a deceiver.  He took his brother Esau’s birthright and blessing through trickery.  This grappling event could represent an internal reckoning, with his struggling in coming to terms with who he was and who he wanted to become.  Almost all of us do this early in life.  

And/or it could have been Jacob’s fear of confrontation.  At this time Jacob was about to meet Esau after years of estrangement. He likely feared retribution and had to confront his own anxiety and the consequences of his past actions. Something we all do frequently in our own relationships with people and increasingly the environment.

I believe this desire is in each of us to find a purpose.  And for the transformation is our hearts so we can feel the suffering of others and help them.   And no longer be dominated by mental beliefs inconsistent with the world we see around us.   Instead of our mind creating its own ‘reality’ that often leads us to suffer.  And instead, use our mind’s inherent intellect and logic to benefit others instead of persisting in defending a variety of flawed beliefs or unique identities that causes suffering an even death in others with different identities.   Identities that our mind ‘sees’ as a threat to its own cherished identity or flawed beliefs. 

Unfortunately, we are evolutionary hard wiring to conserve energy.  And changing a belief is not easy.   We must learn to be the landlord of our mind.   Insist it solves problems related to harming nature or each other.

Finally, Jacob’s wrestling could symbolize his struggle to understand and accept his role in God’s plan.  A test of his faith, persistence, and willingness to engage directly with the divine given his limited time on earth.  This is often a struggle with faith and purpose that nearly every person hopes for. 

The founding fathers of our nation had a different definition of happiness than we have today.  They believed it was finding our bliss in using our strengths in best serving our communities or humanity’s needs.  We all want to make a difference.  That’s why we are here.

In essence, we will often have intense inner battles.  A struggle with forgiveness, understanding complex issues, or seeking a level of self-realization that may ultimately lead to a deeper relationship with others, nature, or our own passing.

 

A sustainable U.S. Constitution rewrite needed

Human intelligence appears to be incapable of believing it needs a rewrite for our nation, ideals, and citizens to survive and thrive.   ChatGPT offers some wisdom.  

Creating a sustainable replacement for the U.S. Constitution would require addressing both the document’s structure and principles to better reflect interconnectedness, environmental stewardship, and a broader sense of global responsibility. Here are some core elements a sustainable replacement might include:

1. Interdependence as a Foundational Principle: A new constitution would emphasize the interconnectedness of all life, explicitly recognizing that human actions impact the natural world, other species, and future generations. It would acknowledge that “independence” is a myth and embed the idea that well-being and prosperity are linked to collective and environmental health.

2. Rights for Nature: Similar to frameworks adopted in countries like Ecuador and New Zealand, a sustainable constitution would grant rights to ecosystems and natural entities, recognizing the intrinsic value of forests, rivers, and other ecosystems beyond their utility to humans. These rights would empower communities and courts to defend the environment against degradation and exploitation.

3. Holistic Human Rights: While retaining rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a new constitution would expand these to include rights to health, clean water, food, housing, education, and a sustainable environment. It would affirm that these rights are universal and intergenerational, setting a mandate to ensure they are upheld for both current and future citizens.

4. Global and Environmental Accountability: A reimagined constitution would recognize global responsibilities, requiring policies and practices to be consistent with international climate, health, and environmental agreements. It would prioritize collaboration and coordination on issues that cross national boundaries, like pandemics, climate change, and ecosystem preservation.

5. Decision-Making Based on Science and Ethics: Rather than deferring to economic priorities alone, governance would be driven by science and ethical considerations, balancing short-term needs with long-term impacts. A “Council of Future Generations” or a similar body could be established to review policies through the lens of intergenerational equity, ensuring that decisions made today do not compromise the needs of tomorrow.

6. Direct Democracy and Participatory Governance: Empowering citizens to have a more direct role in decision-making would increase transparency and accountability. Mechanisms like citizen assemblies, participatory budgeting, and referenda could be enshrined to ensure that diverse voices are heard, especially in decisions impacting the environment and public health.

7. Adaptive, Living Document: Unlike the current Constitution, a sustainable constitution could be designed as a living document, reviewed regularly with mechanisms for iterative improvements. Periodic evaluations, potentially every decade, could allow for constitutional adjustments to address evolving challenges and incorporate emerging scientific knowledge and cultural shifts.

8. Redefined Economic Structures: A sustainable constitution would address economic sustainability directly, embedding principles that value ecological health, fair labor practices, and equitable distribution of resources. It might limit corporate power, emphasizing stakeholder (rather than shareholder) responsibility, and require corporations to act in ways that align with the public and environmental good.

9. Peace and Conflict Resolution: Instead of focusing on national defense alone, the constitution would prioritize peace-building and conflict prevention, dedicating resources to address root causes of conflict, such as resource scarcity, inequality, and ecological degradation.

10. Education for Sustainability: The constitution would enshrine education that fosters understanding of ecological systems, interdependence, and civic responsibility. This would ensure that future generations are equipped to make informed, sustainable choices that contribute to the well-being of all.

A sustainable replacement for the U.S. Constitution would need broad societal buy-in and would require an acknowledgment that existing governance structures have limits when it comes to addressing intergenerational and global challenges. It could be a foundational shift toward a society that values long-term stability, ecological health, and the well-being of all interconnected life.

“White men’s justice” or “Indian justice”? ChatGPT

 “White men’s justice” or “Indian justice” often reflect two different philosophical and cultural approaches to justice. Here’s a broad overview of these concepts based on traditional understandings:

White Men’s Justice (Western Justice System):

• Individualism: Western justice systems often prioritize individual rights and responsibilities, emphasizing a person’s actions and their direct consequences.

• Punitive Measures: There is usually a strong focus on punishment and retribution for wrongdoing, aiming to deter future offenses through penalties.

• Legal Formality: The Western justice system relies on written laws, standardized procedures, and formal institutions (e.g., courts and prisons) to maintain order and administer justice.

• Objective Judgment: Decisions are ideally based on objective, established laws and evidence, with a judge or jury determining guilt or innocence.

Indian Justice (Native American/Indigenous Justice Systems):

• Collectivism and Interdependence: Indigenous justice often emphasizes the interconnectedness of people within the community and sees wrongdoing as a breach in community harmony, affecting everyone.

• Restorative Measures: Indigenous justice focuses more on restoring balance and healing relationships rather than punishment. This might involve reconciliation, making amends, or restitution.

• Oral and Flexible Traditions: Indigenous approaches often use oral traditions and community-led processes rather than strict formal institutions. This flexibility allows the community to adapt justice to each situation’s unique context.

• Focus on Healing: Justice is often aimed at healing not only the victim and offender but also the entire community, seeing justice as a path to restore harmony and respect rather than simply enforcing laws.

These approaches highlight differences in worldview: Western justice systems tend to be more punitive and formal, while Indigenous justice systems lean toward restoration and community well-being. These distinctions can be generalized but vary widely within different groups and practices.

The masses! Cannot be trusted with the truth.

 ‘Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics.’ – Carl Jung

“[The masses] have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two.”  Sigmund Freud  (1856 to 1939) founding father of psychoanalysis.

"Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession -- their ignorance.  -- Hendrik van Loon  (1882-1944) Dutch-American historian and journalist

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.” Gustave Le Bon   The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind.  1895.  A leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. Died in 1931. 

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority.  Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."  -- Giordano Bruno   [Iordanus Brunus Nolanus] (1548-1600) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, astrologer.   Source: The Shadows of Ideas, Paris, 1582

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." - Dresden James

The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians." : Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism

“The abolition of war is no longer an ethical question to be pondered solely by learned philosophers and ecclesiastics, but a hard core one for the decision of the masses whose survival is the issue. Many will tell you with mockery and ridicule that the abolition of war can only be a dream -  that it is the vague imagining of a visionary.  But we must go on or we will go under… We must have new thoughts, new ideas, new concepts.  We must break out of the straight jacket of the past.  We must have sufficient imagination and courage to translate the universal wish for peace - which is rapidly becoming a necessity - into actuality.”  General Douglas MacArthur July 5, 1961

"The nation is sick; trouble is in the land, confusion all around... But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.'" -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   (1929-1968), US civil rights leader. 3 April 1968

“There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.”   –  William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold” speech at the 1896 Democratic  National Convention in Chicago

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."  -- Edward Bernays   (1891-1995) "Father" of modern public relations (PR) and director of the U.S. Committee on Public Information during World War I, on government propaganda  Source: writing in "Propaganda" from "Food & Water Journal'' (1928)

“There are many ways to handle public opinion, in which the ideology of capitalism has been grounded and brought to the level of myths. It is combination of false truths that are being repeated a million times, over the generations, and therefore become indisputable for many. They were designed to represent capitalism as credible and enlist the support and confidence of the masses. These myths are distributed and promoted via media tools, educational institutions, family traditions, church memberships, etc. Here are the most common of these myths.”  Lubov Lulko, Ten Myths About Capitalism

The Law of the Few. History is made by the few, whilst the masses toil at work. For example, the second major revolution in Sapiens’ history – the Agricultural Revolution (around 12,000 years ago) – enabled increased food production and massive population growth, but it forced that average farmer into monotonous hard labour. The fruits of the Agricultural Revolution were enjoyed by a few pampered elites, but who were freed up to make history. For Harari, the Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud. Yuval Noah Harari 2014

‘Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.’ – Carl Jung

“That ‘the mind is mightier than the sword.’  It can literally believe ANYTHING!  LITERALLY ANYTHING!  And then willingly kill or die (or let the masses suffer) to defend what it believes.  And then choose not to do what it knows NEEDS to be done!   Consider the human, economic, and environmental costs related to obesity, smoking, war, genocide, ecocide, not feeding the hungry, not housing the homeless, not healing the sick…as a short list of examples (I have a file of others if you want them).  I have found admiration for those who do what needs to be done (and have a  special file for such ‘heroes’ to turn to when I start ‘feeling uncomfortable’ or losing my courage to tell people what they really need to know…instead of what makes them feel comfortable.  And I know righteousness rarely works.”  Cw  The 2nd thing I learned after 2001. 

Truths be told! But not in elections. Why? 80 reasons below

 The fight against truth decay is not new.  It goes back thousands of years.  And now accelerating.

If the truth set’s you free, what do untruths do?  Below are dozens of quotes to enlighten us on the power of self-evident truths and not the personal or political truths humans have invented.  What are some self-evident truths?

Aristotle offered an important one.  "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold."  Those who debated, engineered, then approved the creation of the U.S. Constitution prove this profound truth.  

Aristotle’s idea clearly expressed the fact that even a small mistake or error in the beginning can lead to much larger consequences down the road. When we start with an incorrect assumption or premise, further reasoning and decision-making will be flawed. If things are built on that faulty foundation, the errors will accumulate and multiply if not corrected. The issue of slavery was. But not the very delusional foundation that states and the people within them can be independent of one another.  This delusion has increasingly perpetrated incorrect conclusions, ineffective actions, and increasing dysfunctional systems and structures at nearly every national and global level. 

Aristotle emphasized the importance of starting with a strong foundation of truth and accuracy in our thinking and reasoning to avoid the compounding effects of errors and ensure that our actions and decisions are based on sound principles and reasoning.  Sound fundamental principles like the self-evident truths clearly stated within the Declaration of Independence assumed under “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  

"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."  -- John Locke  (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist. Considered the ideological progenitor of the American Revolution and who, by far, was the most often non-biblical writer quoted by the Founding Fathers of the USA.

"There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself."  -- Dr. Samuel Johnson   (1709-1784) English author, poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer

“[The masses] have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two.”  Sigmund Freud  (1856 to 1939) founding father of psychoanalysis.

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.” Gustave Le Bon   The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind.  1895.  A leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. Died in 1931. 

“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Prudence [1841]

"It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. ... Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things, which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry  (1736-1799) US Founding Father  Source: "The War Inevitable" speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

"Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend." Hypatia of Alexandria, lived circa 400 CE in Alexandria, Egypt

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." -- Buddha

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion” Edward Abby

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” James Reeves

“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.” Booker T. Washington

"We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth." - Sydney Schanberg

“Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' “ Khalil Gibran - The Prophet

"Truth: the deadliest weapon ever discovered by humanity. Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities. Outlawed by all governments everywhere. Possession is normally punishable by death." - John Gilmore (1935- ) Author

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children

"Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare." Kurt Vonnegut

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people."- Spencer Johnson

"The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can ever help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority."  -- Henrik Ibsen   (1828-1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

"It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition to stand up for it":  A. Hodge

"Truth never tranquilizes. The defining property of truth is its ability to disturb.  Jesus only told half the story.   The truth 'will' set you free.  But, first it's going to piss you off."  -- Solomon Short a fictional character of David Gerrold. 

"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common, they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views" - Doctor Who

"There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge."  -- Roger Bacon   (1220-1292)  Source: Opus Majus, 1266-67

"Nothing is as terrible to see as ignorance in action."   -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German writer, statesman   Source: engraved on a plaque at the Naval War College

“Integrity is an accurate reflection in word and deed of whatever one's highest conscience dictates as right. Wisdom is whatever one's highest conscience dictates as truth.”  – Leonard E. Read

“Though all the winds of the doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”  – John Milton, Areopagatica [1644]

"The search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty." - Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) French author

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal": Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

"There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths."  Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, 19th century English novelist, poet, and politician. (He believed that no matter how alone or friendless a person may feel, there is always someone who cares enough about them to tell them the truth, even if it is something they do not want to hear. A sincere friend will not hesitate to point out someone's flaws or mistakes, even if it is uncomfortable or awkward to do so. In essence, he emphasized the importance of having genuine and honest relationships with people who are willing to tell the truth, no matter how difficult it may be. It also suggests that true friendship is not about always agreeing with each other, but rather about supporting and helping each other to become better people.)

"Truth is not determined by majority vote": Doug Gwyn

“A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not.”  Rex Tillerson. Former Secretary of State, at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA May 2018

"Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity.  Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities.  Outlawed by all governments everywhere.  Possession is normally punishable by death."  -- John Gilmore  (1935-2016) American true crime writer, author of Hollywood memoirs, and novelist

“If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us.” - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark 

“The WORLD is not sufficiently aware of the influence that sophistry exerts over it. When the rule of the stronger was overthrown, sophistry transferred the empire to the more subtle, and it would be hard to say which of these two tyrants has been the more disastrous for mankind.  Men have an immoderate love of pleasure, influence, prestige, power—in a word, wealth. And, at the same time, they are driven by a powerful impulse to obtain these things for themselves at the expense of others. But these others, who constitute the public, are impelled no less powerfully to keep what they have acquired, provided that they can and that they know how. Plunder, which plays such an important role in the affairs of the world, has but two instruments: force and fraud, and two impediments courage and knowledge.”  — Frederic Bastiat, Economic Sophisms [1845]

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go un-debated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." -- Simon Heffer Source: Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

"I would rather starve and rot and keep the privilege of speaking the truth as I see it, than of holding all the offices that capital has to give from the presidency down."  -- Henry Brooks Adams   (1838-1918) Pulitzer prize-winning historian (1919), great-grandson of John Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, and son of US Secretary of State, Charles Adams.  Source: The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, 1919

“Perhaps this is not a new thing!   "I know that most men -- not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems — can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty -- conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives."   -- Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi  (1828-1910) Russian writer    Source: What is Art? (1896)

"The political spirit is the great force in throwing the love of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary place."   -- John Viscount Morley  (1838-1923), of Blackburn    Source: On Compromise, 1874

“It may not always be easy, convenient, or politically correct to stand for truth and right, but it is the right thing to do. Always.”   – M. Russell Ballard

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest": Thomas Paine 

"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility." - Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Robert Reich - Have We Lost the Common Good? [ (4 min) Video]    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t8in5n4cps       In it video, political commentator, author, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, points out that most Americans no longer believe that the major institutions of society—government, corporations, banks, charities, and universities—work for them. Only truths will rebuild trust in our systems.

“Americans need to recognize that, once their government commences warring, truth will be target number one.”  – James Bovard,   "Endless U.S. Government Lies on the Afghanistan War" [October 2018]

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader.

“Today’s politics is the art of forcing our love of truth - and logic - to the back of the bus. And putting your political parties priorities in first ten rows.” Cw

"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." -  Friedrich Nietzsche

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." -  Flannery O'Connor (1925 - 1964)

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it": Mohandas Gandhi

"If you're right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth." Mahatma Gandhi

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself": Thomas Jefferson

"There is but one truth, one set of facts, one reality.  Honest people may differ in their perception or interpretation of it while ruthless, dishonorable people, media, or governments twist, conceal, deny or lie about it to further their own greed and corruption.” - Bob Davies

"One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences." - O. A. Battista - [Orlando Aloysius Battista] (1917-1995), Canadian-American chemist and author  

"Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence": Henri Frederic Amiel:   1880s

"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude.  In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."   Goethe German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician (1749–1832)

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority.  Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."  -- Giordano Bruno   [Iordanus Brunus Nolanus] (1548-1600) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, astrologer.   Source: The Shadows of Ideas, Paris, 1582

"Honesty demands that we boldly pursue ideas tested by time, defended by reason, validated by experience, and confirmed by revelation. We will only find truth when we place our confidence in it and not in ourselves. We will only learn when we love truth enough to measure all ideas with a measuring rod outside of those things being measured and are willing to discard those ideas we find to be "intolerable," inferior, and useless." -- Everett Piper

President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University  Source: 'Bethlehem, Not Berkeley, Is the Birthplace of Free Speech,' The Christian Post, Apr 27, 2017

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine — the special pleading of selfish interests”. – Henry Hazlitt, Economics In One Lesson [1946]

"The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side."   ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German writer and statesman

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."  -- Albert Einstein  (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921

 

"All truth is true even if no one believes it, and all falsehood is false even if everyone believes it. Truth is true and that's just the end of it."  Os Guinness

“The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.”  – Goethe. German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician (1749–1832)

“They deem him their worst enemy, who tells them the truth” - Plato, The Republic, c. 380 BC

"It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true." -  Henry Kissinger

"To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true." -   H L Mencken, 1919 

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal": Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -  Winston S. Churchill

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth." -  William Faulkner

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." -  Oscar Wilde

"The first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth" -  Michael Parenti    

"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."  -  Herbert Sebastien Agar  

"A society committed to the search for truth must give protection to, and set a high value upon, the independent and original mind, however angular, however rasping, however, socially unpleasant it may be; for it is upon such minds in large measure, that the effective search for truth depends."  -- Caryl Parker Haskins  (1908-2001) Scientist, author, inventor, philanthropist, governmental advisor and pioneering entomologist in the study of ant biology    Source: New York Times, 9 December 1963

"When telling someone the truth, make them laugh or they will kill you" ~ Oscar Wilde

"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."  -  Herbert Sebastien Agar  

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." -- Justice Joseph Story : (1779-1845) US Supreme Court Justice 1833

"I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. - I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. - I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering." -  Mahatma Gandhi

“I am for truth, no matter who tells it.” -Malcolm X

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul

"In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth," "In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble." Rep. Ron Paul (R) of Texas

“The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” -- H L  Mencken (attributed: source unknown)

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them”  Ida B. Wells

“We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth. We cannot know truth unless we ourselves are conformed to it. We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true by manifesting the truth as we see it”.  – Thomas Merton, From No Man Is an Island [1955]

"The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead or contradict them because they are alive.

With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author.   He may have been a king or serf -- a philosopher or servant, — but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason.  Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station  of the man who gave it to the world."  -- Robert G. Ingersoll    (1833-1899) American lawyer, Civil War veteran, political leader, orator of United States during the Golden Age of Free Thought, nicknamed "The Great Agnostic"

“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”  – Joseph Goebbels

I stand for the truth.  Will stand for it?  If not, then what do you stand for?