George Orwell warned us. In 2008, then congressman Ron Paul published a book — a book I highly recommend —titled Revolution: A Manifesto. Within that book, the good doctor lays out a refreshingly persuasive case for the necessity of individual liberty; including the dangers it shields us from and those that are effectively eroding its protection. Among these threats, a sophisticated and malicious dishonesty reigns abundant; one that he immortally enshrined with this famous quote from Orwell:
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”
This “strategy of untruth” has proven quite popular in the past. Throughout the ages, elite and powerful figures have used it as means to consolidate and manage their agency in virtually every nation on earth. It’s a very simple concept: team one tells the people what they want to hear, people vote them in, team one doesn’t follow through on most of it, but takes incremental steps toward additional power consolidation, creating discontent among the people. Then the other team tells people what they want to hear, the people vote them in, they don’t follow through on most of it, but take incremental steps toward additional power consolidation; and so on and so forth. This cycle of dishonesty has been turning now for over 200 years in America and the resulting chaotic snowball of deceit has probably only been marginally slowed by president Trump’s victory in November of 2016. The minions (and masters) of Hillary Clinton and her ilk, however, are certainly not lying down in defeat.
In the past, the uncouth schemes of power-mongering politicians have been partially obscured by a miasma of deception. Politicians today, however — Mrs. Clinton chief among them — don’t even seem to care about the integrity of the webs they weave when speaking untruths. In 2015, Clinton made many public statements about her private email debacle knowing that her words were untrue and, unless she is a complete idiot (she’s not), she had to have known that her deception would easily be uncovered by the investigation. The explanation for this? Hubris. She doesn’t care, because she knows there are millions of mindless partisans who would support her Democratic Party no matter what she (or they) did. All she has to do is tell them what they want to hear.
Clinton has had ample time and opportunity to practice at her foundry of lies over a long political career, stretching back to the mid-70’s, and, as was evidenced in the election cycle, is more than comfortable with what has become a habit for her. If she would have become president, do her supporters believe Mrs. Clinton suddenly would’ve started being truthful? Many of them would not even be able to admit she doesn’t tell the truth now or in the past; so the answer to my question is largely irrelevant, because many people are simply apathetic about the truth. That is why politicians feel so free to lie with impunity. The truth doesn’t always feel good. The truth is often ugly and uncomfortable. The truth hurts. Would you rather live easy in the Matrix or struggle to survive in the real world?
A great author of fantasy-fiction, Terry Goodkind, has written a series of novels that are collectively titled, “The Sword of Truth.” In each book of the series he posits a rule which the main characters embrace as proverbial truth and use to direct their actions in life. The first rule states the following:
“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”
Powerful men and women have used this fact for thousands of years to control and manipulate the great masses of people that have been under their government — and that is why people should be skeptical of everything that those seeking to govern are telling us. We live in the information age where it is relatively easy — compared to all other times in human history — to fact-check what any would-be Caesar is saying. Are these people telling the truth? It is our right and responsibility to vigilantly protect ourselves from such wolves. Knowing the truth is a way to do that. It is a weapon that we can use; a weapon we should use. Dr. Ron Paul used this weapon to great effect in 2008 and 2012 to martial many to the cause of liberty. His great work and project are a powerful example for the rest of us. Learn from him. Learn how to know and tell the truth.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies … If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again … this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America.” – Ron Paul (Revolution: A Manifesto)