That Which Can Be Destroyed By The Truth, Should Be
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
“That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.”
This is a line by fantasy author PC Hodgell, though it’s often misattributed to Carl Sagan.
I think about this quote a lot.
I think about it when reflecting on the way Israel is exterminating Palestinian journalists in Gaza while keeping western journalists out of the enclave to prevent the world from learning the truth about what the IDF is doing there.
I think about it when reflecting on the mountains of government secrecy with which the western empire protects its information interests, imprisoning whistleblowers and persecuting journalists who try to expose the truth about its criminal actions around the world.
I think about it when reflecting on the nonstop deluge of empire propaganda that public consciousness is hammered with to manipulate the masses into accepting the global leadership the US-centralized power structure.
I think about it when reflecting on the US war machine and how all the military operations of Washington and its allies are always justified by lies.
I think about it when reflecting on dysfunctional relationships that are held in place by secrets and dishonesty, preventing the ones being deceived from freeing themselves and finding their way into a life of authenticity.
I think about it when reflecting on the ego and how easily its illusory nature can be seen with a penetrating insight into the truth of how human perception and cognition are really operating.
There are times when withholding the truth would be in the highest interest. Someone lying to the police to protect someone from unjust persecution at the hands of an unjust system. A journalist protecting a source by obfuscating the truth from government agents. A battered wife lying to her husband to calm him down. An abused child lying to their abuser about what they’ve been doing.
But as near as I can tell the only times when withholding the truth is in the highest interest is when there’s an abusive power dynamic at play and the person in the down-power position is using untruth to protect someone in an unjust situation which should not exist in the first place. In all other instances, truth is best.
Truth is the great equalizer. It makes the abuses of the powerful much more difficult to execute, and gives the disempowered much more power. This is why our rulers are constantly working to expand surveillance and eliminate the privacy of ordinary citizens while increasing government secrecy to allow themselves to hide the truth, when in a healthy society it would be the exact opposite. In a healthy society ordinary members of the public would have enshrined privacy protections against the government, and any governmental systems would be as transparent as air.
In a healthy society there would be a direct one-to-one correlation between power and transparency. The more power you have the more transparency should be required of you, and the less power you have the more secrecy you should be shielded with. This would protect ordinary citizens from abuse at the hands of the powerful, and prevent the powerful from becoming abusive toward the citizenry. We know this is true because all the most abusive power structures work constantly to reverse this dynamic to the furthest extent possible.
A healthy society will be a truth-based society. It’s hard to imagine what a society that is guided by truth would look like, because we live in a society that is made of lies. If deceit magically became impossible today, all our institutions would crumble by tomorrow. A truth-based society would mean the total destruction of all that is familiar to us right now. But that which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
Truth can be scary, because in any situation sustained by falsehood, truth is a destructive force. It can cause political upheaval. It can end relationships. It can annihilate egoic delusion. Any of these will typically feel like a giant leap into the unknown, and are generally terrifying for exactly that reason. But this is the only path toward health.
If we are to survive on this planet, eventually we’re going to have to take that leap. Eventually we’re going to have to become a truth-driven species. Everything about our current status quo will resist this movement — the untruth in our current power structures, and the untruth within ourselves.
Maybe we won’t take that leap until things get so bad that the unknown looks less terrifying than what the familiar has become. Maybe we will find our courage before it comes to that point. But we’re going to have to jump for it eventually, or we will go the way of the dinosaur.
And if it does come to that, if we are collectively unable to take the leap because we value our lies more than our lives, that too will reveal a truth to us about who we are and what we were always made of. One way or the other, truth will have the final say.
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be. And, eventually, will be.
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