Live Not By Lies.
On the day he was arrested in 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn released this essay as an answer to standing up against tyranny and violence.
Dear Children,
Live not by lies.
To many, myself included, leadership at the top of the human social hierarchy is proving itself rotten.
Like a worm that finds an apple and eats it from the inside out, these humans are hollow, they have forfeit their soul.
A single rotten fruit quickly rots the whole basket. So I have long wondered what we can do to stem the tide.
And I have found the answer in an essay by Alexander Solzenhitsyn.
This great truth teller equated ideology to lies. And, in a prophetic call to the soul of each individual, explained that “if many march together on this path of passive resistance, the whole inhuman system will totter and collapse.”1
Even the most timid can take this least demanding step toward spiritual independence by refraining from cooperating with the regime’s lies.
My hope for you both, as your Father, is that you have the strength and courage to live not by lies.
Here are the essays key points either directly quoted or summarised for simplicity:
We are approaching the brink; already a universal spiritual demise is upon us; a physical one is about to flare up and engulf us and our children, while we continue to smile sheepishly and babble:
“But what can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength.”
We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up all principles, our soul, all the labors of our ancestors, all the prospects of our descendants — anything to avoid disrupting our meager existence.
We have lost our strength, our pride, our passion. We do not even fear a common nuclear death, do not fear a third world war (perhaps we’ll hide away in some crevice), but fear only to take a civic stance!
Some will counter: But really, there is nothing to be done! Our mouths are gagged, no one listens to us, no one asks us. How can we make them listen to us?
To make them reconsider — is impossible.
We find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal non-participation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!
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. But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!
You must say to yourself: I will not knowingly speak, write, publish, promote, or repeat what I believe to be false. I will not endorse slogans, causes, candidates, quotations, or ideas I do not sincerely support. I will not participate in meetings, demonstrations, media, or institutions that require me to deny, distort, or conceal the truth as I understand it. If confronted with falsehood, propaganda, or deliberate deception, I will refuse my cooperation and withdraw my support.
This may carry personal costs. It may complicate life, opportunities, and advancement. Yet there is no honest path that permits the willing surrender of truth, even for a day. Each person must choose between spiritual independence and spiritual servility. To do otherwise is how tyranny takes hold. And tyranny is afoot.
When the commanding heights call you to ignore your own eyes and ears, you must resist.
It is not an easy choice for the body, but the only one for the soul.
Live not by lies.
Source: https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/live-not-by-lies
by Edward E. Ericson, Jr. and Daniel J. Mahoney, The Solzhenitsyn Reader