Live Not By Lies

A Minor Point About Truth Telling in Modernity

I want to make a minor observation about truth telling. All human societies require a degree of sublimation in order to function, even if that sublimation merely takes the form of “politeness”. I might not care for a person (an in-law is the classic example), but I learn techniques to tolerate them in exchange for the good of general amiability. This is a good thing, to a point, but it is also a form of lying (I should add that the ultimate goal of such sublimation should ultimately be the inner transformation by which I learn to legitimately care for those whom I otherwise might despise, but I think that we can all agree this is a tall order, and few ever really get there).

The more complex a society becomes, the greater the potentiality for conflict, and the more complex becomes this web of sublimation. Without the inner transformation only truly evident in the Saints, this constant inner sublimation begins to grate on the human soul, seeking outlets for release.

I think much of what we are seeing on social media (the evident racial dog whistles, salacious sexuality, political extremism, and even calls for political violence), are the result of our attempts to create a world free of these darker tendencies our humanity, without first requiring that the human society truly transform. It is the modern technocratic response to the problem of human sinfulness, without acknowledging the true root of the problem.

This is a dangerous situation. On the one hand, I am almost glad to see that there is some psychic release after these darker urges have been so long outright renounced as even inhabiting the recesses of the human soul—for like it or not, darkness is never far from the human heart, and we have become so used to ignoring this patently obvious fact, that it has caused us to become utterly paranoid of the other (since we know we lie to them, we expect them to lie to us). Speaking the evil in one’s heart, however evil it may be, actually gives one an opportunity to wrestle with this sin and overcome it (this is the road of confession and repentance). On the other hand, these cries are being sent into a dark abyss where they comingle, and are allowed to grow stronger.

It is vitally important that we tell the truth, especially to ourselves, even if we do not always like that truth. It is not always prudent, however, to simply spill the ugliness of these revealed truths into the void of the internet, where they can fester and breed. This is why the private realm of friends and compatriots is so important, where one can speak revealingly of ones faults (even [gasp] joking about the folly of ones faults) without the prying eye of the undifferentiated public, who doesn’t know you, cares nothing for your good, and desires nothing more than the destruction of all that is higher than itself. Subsidiarity is the key, allowing the world to split and commingle in small platoons of families, friends, clans, cities, and nations. The drive of the internet and of modernity, to push and pull all peoples into an undifferentiated mass of a common humanity, is the work of the devil himself.

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