Truth, Lies, Faith, Fear, Feelings

Mostly ideas from others

I.

Truth

Five quotes on truth:

1.

When the issue is one of Truth and Justice, there can be no differentiating between small problems and great ones. For the general viewpoints on human behaviour are indivisible. People who fail to regard the truth seriously in small matters, cannot be trusted in matters that are great.

Albert Einstein, from Einstein’s last statement

2.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, Young India 1924-1926

3.

A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

4.

When approval-seeking is a need, the possibilities for truth are all but wiped away.

Wayne W. Dyer, Your Erroneous Zones

5.

Learn how to learn from those you disagree with or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living

II.

Lies

As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself… The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.

Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., The Body Keeps the Score

I used to get paid to lie. For over two years in my early twenties, I worked for a Coca-Cola bottler as a “Sustainability Manager.” My primary job was to speak at conferences and convince all the significant stakeholders and customers (universities, theme parks, government officials, etc.) that plastic bottles are sustainable.

“Our packages are fully recyclable, plastic bottles have a smaller carbon footprint than aluminum and glass, aseptic cartons are bad, Circular Economy, Recycling Partnership, World Without Waste, ocean microplastics come from ghost nets and tire treads—not bottles, plastic straws are to blame, litter is an education issue and not an organization issue, blah blah blah.” I was programmed well.

In the 1945 hit ballad Sixteen Tons, singer-songwriter Merle Travis wrote, “I owe my soul to the company store.” In my case, I’d sold my soul to the Coca-Cola store. I’d knowingly compromised my values for what I believed was a laudable salary and job title. The person I was back then is worlds apart from who I am now, but I still remember what it was like to be that person. I know what it takes to be the kind of person who is willing to lie on behalf of a corporation.

In my last article, I called out several media organizations for explicitly lying about a significant historical event. I referenced warnings from George Orwell’s 1984. And I remained politically neutral. While I received unexpected support for my courage and peculiar perspective on the matter, I also endured a torrent of vilification. As someone who used to minimize and obfuscate truth for my job, I was merely giving credit where credit was due.

In our current climate, telling the truth and exposing lies can be seen as a revolutionary act.

III.  

Faith

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory within us.

It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give

other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.​

Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

IV.  

Fear

Two ideas from The Culture of Fear:

1.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was right when he claimed, “In politics, what begins in fear usually ends up in folly.” Political activists are more inclined, though, to heed an observation from Richard Nixon: “People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school, but it's true.” That principle, which guided the late president's political strategy throughout his career, is the sine qua non of contemporary political campaigning. Marketers of products and services ranging from car alarms to TV news programs have taken it to heart as well.

The short answer to why Americans harbor so many misbegotten fears is that immense power and money await those who tap into our moral insecurities and supply us with symbolic substitutes.

Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear

2.

Michelle Obama, spoke to supporters in rural Iowa about why she agreed to let her husband run. “Barack and I talked long and hard about this decision. This wasn’t an easy decision for us,” she explained, “because we’ve got two beautiful little girls and we have a wonderful life and everything was going fine, and there would have been nothing that would have been more disruptive than a decision to run for president of the United States.

“And as more people talked to us about it, the question came up again and again, what people were most concerned about. They were afraid. It was fear. Fear again, raising its ugly head in one of the most important decisions that we would make. Fear of everything. Fear that we might lose. Fear that he might get hurt. Fear that this might get ugly. Fear that it would hurt our family. Fear. “You know the reason why I said ‘Yes’? Because I am tired of being afraid. I am tired of living in a country where every decision that we have made over the last ten years wasn’t for something, but it was because people told us we had to fear something. We had to fear people who looked different from us, fear people who believed in things that were different from us, fear one another right here in our own backyards. I am so tired of fear, and I don’t want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.”

Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear

V.  

Feelings

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Attributed to Carl Jung

In times of heightened stress and fear, we must remember that we each have control over our own thoughts and feelings. And as consumers, it’s important to be thoughtful about the content we consume because our thoughts will be full of whatever we choose.

If we choose to engage with news that immobilizes and divides us, then that is our choice. If we choose to engage with media that inspires us and expands our worldview, then that is our choice. If we choose to immerse ourselves in the natural world and sleep under the stars, then that is our choice. If we choose to spend over seven hours on our devices each day, then that is our choice. If we choose ignorance, then that is our choice. If we choose revolution, then that is our choice.

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I’ll leave you with this final reminder: