Live Not By Lies – Vote for Truth

Live not by lies. These words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn urged those who lived in a society twisted by lies from the government, media, education, and other cultural institutions to stop cooperating with the regime’s lies. This message is as important for us today as it was for those who lived in communist tyranny in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn urged even those who were timid and afraid of the machine and social rejection to take the first hesitant steps to passive resistance. Like then, if we march together with SabersEdge and other like-minded organizations the house of lies will shudder and then collapse. But to triumph, we must all vote and not let them convince us it is hopeless or “in the bag.” It may seem like a cliché but this is the most important election for us and our children and will determine how our future unfolds.

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12 February 1974, the day Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested in the Soviet Union released the text “Live Not By Lies.” He was exiled to the west the next day. In it, he attacks the lies that human nature and society can be reshaped by education, media, and government to fit the delusional dogma and warped specifications of an ideology of manipulation and control. He was, at the time, attacking the delusions of the totalitarian communist state, but today we face the same threat in the West by an elite who have gained control of our media, education, government, and other cultural institutions to promulgate the lies that are destroying Western Society, driving us to economic ruin, and setting people adrift from the cultural anchors that have helped to build the greatest society, technological and economic wealth, and body of knowledge that the world has ever seen. As we are now in a new election cycle this injunction to “Live Not By Lies” is the most necessary message we could hear and act on between now and election day:

There was a time when we dared not rustle a whisper. But now we [listen to news and propaganda] congregating… [and] heartily complain to each other of all they are muddling up, of all they are dragging us into! …against the backdrop of ruin and poverty at home; and the buttressing of distant savage regimes; and the kindling of civil wars; and the ill-thought-out cultivation [of foreign tyrants] (at our expense to boot) – in the end we’ll be the ones sent out against [them], and we’ll have to go, what other option will there be? And they put whomever they want on trial, and brand the healthy as mentally ill [and the mentally ill as healthy?] – and it is always “they” while we are – helpless.

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 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 civil stance! We hope only not to stray from the herd, not to set out on our own, and risk suddenly having to make do without the white bread, the hot water heater, a Moscow residency permit.

We have internalized well the lessons drummed into us by the state [and media]; we are forever content and comfortable with its premise: we cannot escape the environment, the social conditions; they shape us, “being determines consciousness.” What have we to do with this? We can do nothing.

But we can do – everything! – even if we comfort and lie to ourselves that this is not so. It is not “they” who are guilty of everything, but we ourselves, only we!

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.

The natural thing would be simply not to reelect them…

In the West they have strikes, protest marches, but we are [now] too cowed, to scared: How does one just give up one’s job, just go out onto the street?

All other fateful means resorted to over the last century of Russia’s bitter history are even less fitting for us today – true, let’s not fall back on them! Today, when all that was sown has borne fruit, we can see how lost, how drugged were those conceited youths who sought, through terror, bloody uprising, and civil war, to make the country just and content. No thank you, fathers of enlightenment! We now know that the vileness of the means begets the vileness of the result. Let our hands be clean!

So has the circle closed? So is there indeed no way out? So the only thing left to do is wait inertly: What if something just happens by itself?

But it will never come unstuck by itself, if we all, every day, continue to acknowledge, glorify, and strengthen it, if we do not, at the least, recoil from its most vulnerable point.

From lies.

When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance, it displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass – and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally – Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence. And it is not every day and not on every shoulder that violence brings down its heavy hand: It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit – and this suffices as our fealty.

And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation 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 ule hold not through me!

And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.

We [may not be] called upon to step out onto the square and shout 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!

This is the way, then, the easiest and most accessible for us given our deep-seated organic cowardice [of humanity always seeking to blame others and never taking responsibility], [it is] much easier than (it’s scary to even utter the words) civil disobedience a’ la Gandhi [or Thoreau].

Our way must be: Never knowingly support lies! Having understood where the lies begin (and many see this line differently) – step back from that gangrenous edge! Let us not glue back the flaking scales of the Ideology, not gather back its crumbling bones, nor patch together its decomposing garb, and we will be amazed how swiftly and helplessly the lies will fall away, and that which is destined to be naked will be exposed to the world.

And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: Will he remain the witting servant of the lies (needless to say, not due to natural predisposition, but in order to provide a living for the family, to rear the children in the spirit of lies!), or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries? And from that day onward he:

-Will not write, sign, nor publish in any way, a single line distorting, so far as he can see, the truth;

– Will not utter such a line in private or in public conversation, nor read it from a crib sheet, nor speak it in the role of educator, canvasser, teacher, actor;

– Will not in painting, sculpture, photograph, technology, or music depict, support, or broadcast a single false thought, a single distortion of the truth as he discerns it;

– Will not cite in writing or speech a single “guiding” quote for gratification, insurance, for his success at work, unless he fully shares the cited thought and believes that it fits the context precisely;

-Will not be forced to a demonstration or a rally if it runs counter to his desire and his will; will not take up and raise a banner or slogan in which he does not fully believe;

Will not raise a hand in vote for a proposal which he does not sincerely support; will not vote openly or in secret ballot for a candidate whom he deems dubious or unworthy;

– Will not be impelled to a meeting where a forced and distorted discussion is expected to take place;

-Will at once walk out from a session, meeting, lecture, play, or film as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, ideological drivel, or shameless propaganda;

-Will not subscribe to, nor buy in retail, a newspaper or journal that distorts or hides the underlying facts.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the possible and necessary ways of evading lies. But he who begins to cleanse himself will, with a cleansed eye, easily discern yet other opportunities.

Yes, at first it will not be fair. Someone will have to temporarily lose his job. For the young who seek to live by truth, this will at first severely complicate life, for their tests and quizzes, too, are stuffed with lies, and so choices will have to be made. But there is no loophole left for anyone who seeks to be honest: Not even for a day, not even in the safest technical occupations can he avoid even a single one of the listed choices – to be made in favor of either truth or lies, in favor of spiritual independence or spiritual servility. And as for him who lacks the courage to defend even his own soul: Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general. Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.

For us, who have grown staid over time, even this most moderate path of resistance will not be easy to set upon…Betrayed and deceived by us, did not a great European people – the Czechoslovaks – show us how one can stand down the tanks with bared chest alone, as long as inside it beats a worthy heart?

It will not be an easy path, perhaps, but it is the easiest among those that lie before us. Not an easy choice for the body, but the only one for the soul. No not an easy path, but then we already have among us people, dozens even, who have for years abided by all these rules, who live by the truth.

And so: We need not be the first to set out on this path, Ours is but to join! The more of us set out together, the thicker our ranks, the easier and shorter will this path be for us all! If we become thousands- they will not cope, they will be unable to touch us. If we will grow to tens of thousands – we will not recognize our country! [Freedom will be restored.]

But if we shrink away, then let us cease complaining that someone does not let us draw breath – we do it to ourselves! Let us then cower and hunker down, while our comrades the biologists bring closer the day when our thoughts can be read and our genes altered.

And if from this also we shrink away, then we are worthless, hopeless, and it is of us that Pushkin asks with scorn:

Why offer herds their liberation?

—

Their heritage each generation

The yoke with jingles, and the whip.

—

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, LIVE NOT BY LIES – 12 FEB 1974

The time for action is upon us!

In most places, early voting has already started. It is essential that everyone is aware of what is going on votes and encourages others to listen truly and be aware of the lies that abound. The elite powers want to subvert our democratic republic and reduce us to subjects stripped of our rights and our agency. They want us demoralized and compliant to which we must say “No!” Some want to reduce our rights for the sake of turning us into good consumers, other powers want to subvert the populace because they feel only the tyranny of the “enlightened” can save the planet or respond to global crises, and still others are lying and subverting the society for the sake of preserving their power and position. NONE of these forces have our best interests in mind and only by having the largest midterm turnout ever can we defeat those who are mobilizing the ignorant by subverting the media with lying ads and disinformation. Everyone who sees through these lies MUST vote because too many who don’t see through the lies will vote as they are told to vote – without understanding the maleficent influences behind the ads.

I will give you several examples in the days to come of the lies and how they are trying to manipulate our vote or suppress our spirit. In my mind, any candidate or issue who is primarily defended by lies is the very candidate we must defeat, and any candidate against whom lies are mobilized en masse should be someone we support (because the elite fear them). The political elite of both parties are guilty of this and both party machines are about perpetuating their power rather than defending our Republic and Constitution. It is up to the people to step forward and reject the lies and assert the truth in the ballot box. Only in that way can we return to a free Republic that we once were offered and now have lost. Over two hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin told the crowd about their new government: A REPUBLIC IF YOU CAN KEEP IT! In many ways, we have let it slip from our grasp. But now is the time to grab hold, rebuild, and assert our freedom! Together, we can overcome the lies and deceit and ensure that our children live in the promise of freedom that the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights promised to each of us.

We must all do what we can and the least we can do is vote and chose to stop living by the lies we have been told. We must stop making excuses for doing nothing and we must each do what we can. Join with SabersEdge and restore our freedoms and our hope.