The only people who are mad at you for speaking the truth are people who are living a lie. Keep speaking the truth.
When I saw this aphorism, I instantly gravitated to it. For obvious reasons. And as quickly as I chose it, I also wondered about the truth. Reality being perceptual and all, is the truth an absolute?
There are many flavors of the truth under specific circumstances. An event can transpire and there can be countless accounts of what happened. Many will correlate, some will not. Some will be filtered through the minds of the witnesses and their reality can cloud the truth.
Or take the magician. When they perform, an account of what was seen will be told convincingly on a lie detector as being the truth, but in actuality, there is an illusion, slight of hand or other variable that guises the truth as something disparate from what was seen and noted.
In the world we are inhabiting, there are media outlets on both sides of the political spectrum that play to their audience. Giving a slant to the truth that is close to factual, yet clearly biased. (Or in some cases, pure unadulterated bullshit)
But this aphorism speaks to core truth. Irrefutable truth. (Metaphorically speaking, God’s truth.) In that situation, there really is only one truth. Even if some people do not like the truth, are offended by the truth or (in most cases) inconvenienced by the truth. Those are the moments in which it becomes critical to speak up against things that are blatantly untrue. Especially under circumstances in which innocent people, animals, living things or the environment are being damaged.
The movement in today’s world leads further to polarization than ever before. Now there are deceptive systems to brainwash large volumes of people into believing things that are unquestionably false and lead them to insanely destructive choices. Witness the Q Anon cult in Dallas at Dealey Plaza over the last couple of months.
It would be easy to drop into one of my rants on any of my pet peeve topics, but I shan’t today. More important to me is to bring out the need to see real truth. Seek real, verifiable facts, and assemble the truth from your perspective in a way that becomes irrefutable.
If you speak out and others blanche because they are living a lie, then so be it. If they get angry that you are calling them out on the lie, then you face significant repercussions because people who are living a lie, do not wish to ever see otherwise. Far easier (for them) to continue to believe what they believe.
Your choice to vocalize that which they believe to be false comes with conflict, being ostracized, antagonized and ultimately a fully severed relationship.
I speak out about a lot of things that I see (know) to be true. I try to stay open to the things in which I could be wrong, and will always listen to contrary opinions (if valid and intelligent) to ensure that perhaps my understanding is accurate and factual.
Institutions change. Reality shifts. Public opinion sways. But the truth. (The real accurate truth) is always the truth.
Do not be afraid to speak it. If we cower behind a lie, we empower those who would have us believe the lie to gain ground in the race to enslave those of us who can discern truth from fallacy. It may cost you a relationship along the way, but in the end, is it really important to stay connected to someone who is delusional beyond conflicting communication?
Try your best to communicate in a manner that does not confront them, but allows them to express their opinion, and take the time to listen to it, for there may be validity in it. But if their story is so far astray from any reality that has or will transpire, then you must choose whether or not to continue to listen, to confront or to walk away.
But in all cases, never accept anything less than the real truth for your life to live within.
Happy Wednesday!
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