Will you take the red pill or the blue pill?
In the movie The Matrix the traitor Cypher, played by Joe Pantoliano, is tired of fighting the machine culture. He longs for the simple pleasures of taste, what he missed when he lived in the reality created by machines. Cypher tires of the rebellion to fulfill his own personal appetites. Every rebellion has known its Cypher, the traitor, who would rather go back to living under totalitarian rule than endure the loss of ease. But the gain of ease comes at the loss of freedom.
Alexandre Solzhenitsyn warned his fellow countrymen of just such a loss of freedom. Live Not By Lies is a phrase taken from Alexandre Solzhenitsyn’s final speech to the Russian people before he became an émigré to the United States. Solzhenitsyn’s call then is just as applicable in our own day. Losing freedom has an impact both on individuals and institutions.
Of course, Karl Marx preached that the Russian people were being duped by another kind of tyrant: religion. Dreher
uses religious words like “missionaries,” “evangelists,” and “zealots” (24-25, 29) to convey that Marx’s views were just another worldview. First in the line of religious Marxist workers were the “intelligentsia,” professors in universities (41-43). The teachers used language to communicate Marxist doctrine to students, then to the workers, moving the Russian Revolution into every home and workplace (26). The belief system began with an idea, supported by words, carried by instructors, seeded into students, and finally spreading its views throughout the whole Russian system. The Matrix message of systemic control is easy to see in any totalitarian takeover.
And it is easy to see how some become traitors and submit to a dictatorial system. Dreher quotes historian Anne Applebaum, saying people conformed to the system because they “succumbed to the constant, all-encompassing, everyday psychological and economic pressure” (28).
To explain the process Dreher relies on Hannah Arendt’s classic The Origins of Totalitarianism. Arendt notes the following conditions that allowed authoritarianism to spread: (1) Loneliness and social atomization, (2) loss of faith in institutions, (3) desire for deviance and destruction, (4) willingness to believe propaganda and lies, (5) politicized ideologies, and (6) loyalty over expertise (30-41).
Now notice what has been lost. My list of loss corresponds to Arendt’s six conditions: (1) community, (2) purpose, (3) church, (4) reportage, (5) persons, and (6) standards. Every belief system pushes out other beliefs that are antithetic to its own. The question that remains for free peoples is whether or not they will push back against what they are losing instead of accepting the personal pleasures of acceptance.
Becoming a traitor has immediate benefits: power, position, prestige, and purse. But it is the long-term implications
of freedom’s loss that liberty loving individuals will fight for. Live Not By Lies outlines the losses some are willing to accept. But one belief is always replaced by another. [In Part 3 of my review I will address the new religion: “progressivism.”] A Scriptural philosophy of communication begins an antidote to exchanging the truth for a lie:
Truth is essential for communication. When God spoke creation into being, His character of integrity, trustworthiness and faithfulness was displayed (Ps 102:25-27; 119:89-96; 1 Pet 4:19). Truth is reliable because God is reliable. Truth corresponds with fact and reality. So, truthfulness is part and parcel of speech. When we speak, we should be honest, genuine, objective, dependable and impartial. We should stop lying, bias, double talk, misrepresentation, half-truths, exploitation, withholding information, or “playing up” one point of view while ignoring others.
Ideas are captive to words. The creation was perfect; everything was “very good” (Gen 1:31). God’s words were fitted with exact intention (Ps 12:6). Frustration arises when we “know what we mean but can’t put it into words.” We should focus on exactitude and clarity in our rhetoric, avoiding error. We should say what we mean and mean what we say.
Biblical commands demand the authority of multiple witnesses (Num 35:30, Deut 17:6, 19:15, 2 Cor 13:1, 1 Tim 5:19). Truth-telling matters in every human sphere, especially journalism, where what people read, they believe. Those who speak, write, and opine bear great responsibility.