What did it mean to live by lies? It meant, [Aleksander] Solzhenitsyn writes, accepting without protest all the falsehoods and propaganda that the state compelled its citizens to affirm—or at least not to oppose—to get along peaceably under totalitarianism. Everybody says that they have no choice but to conform, says Solzhenitsyn, and to accept powerlessness. But that is the lies that gives all other lies their malign force. The ordinary man may not be able to overturn the kingdom of lies, but he can at least say that he is not going to be its loyal subject.
“We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready,” he writes. “But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think.”
For example, says Solzhenitsyn, a man who refuses to live by lies:
- Will not say, write, affirm, or distribute anything that distorts the truth
- Will not go to a demonstration or participate in a collective action unless he truly believes in the cause
- Will not take part in a meeting in which the discussion is forced and no one can speak the truth
- Will not vote for a candidate or proposal he considers to be “dubious or unworthy”
- Will walk out of an event “as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, ideological drivel, or shameless propaganda”
- Will not support journalism that “distorts or hides the underlying facts”
“This is by no means an exhaustive list of the possible and necessary ways of evading lies,” Solzhenitsyn writes. “But he who begins to cleanse himself will, with a cleansed eye, easily discern yet other opportunities.
Rod Dreher, Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents (pp. 17-18)
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Rod Dreher on Live Not by Lies - Full Episode https://youtu.be/caQsreT755w
“Live Not By Lies” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (from Livestream #49) https://youtu.be/Mw0A8jXRSGQ
Live Not By Lies, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolhenitsynLies.php
