Schließt eure Herzen sorgfältiger als eure Tore. Es kommen die Zeiten des Betrugs, es ist ihm Freiheit gegeben. Die Nichtswürdigen werden regieren mit List, und der Edle wird in ihre Netze fallen.
– Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen.
Age of deceit
“Don’t lie; always speak the truth” was one of the core moral principles I grew up with. Idealistic honesty is the mark of the hero, and it was only natural that I, too, wanted to be honest, just as the heroes I admired. Although I still lied and deceived, this came with a painful guilty conscience. It seemed obvious to me that the purpose of speech was to truthfully convey facts, and deviating from that mode meant moral depravation.
And yet, as he grows up and discovers more of the world, the young idealist must eventually recognise that lies are not an occasional and unfortunate deviation from the primacy of truth. Omissions, deceit and blatant lies are everywhere. Scientists know the results before their trials start, climate activists secretly spend their holidays on Bali, encyclopedias conceal facts beneath stacks of slander. It seems as if the most blatant liars have the most success. Resentment builds. It is not right that lying is rewarded, ponders the young idealist, cursing humanity.
He is mistaken. Deceit is not a human invention. It is, in fact, ubiquitous in nature. We are appalled by the treacherous cuckoo, laying his eggs into other birds’ nests, tricking them into spending their efforts, their very life force into rearing the cuckoo’s offspring rather than their own. Yet, even the mighty tiger operates full of deceit. Camouflaging as blades of grass it treacherously hides in the undergrowth to pounce without warning on its unsuspecting victim.
The purpose of language
In The Hero and the Man, C.B. Robertson contrasts the idealistic hero, exemplified by Achilles, with Odysseus, the man. For the hero, reputation is everything. In order to live on in saga and song, the hero must rely on language passing on his story truthfully. The quest for honour, the adherence to ones convictions is more important even than life. Achilles dies pursuing glory. Heroic Jesus dies for speaking bluntly, for refusing to denounce his beliefs. A different mode of speech seems better at avoiding an early grave: The more diplomatic, twisting and turning speech of Odysseus.
The purpose of language is not solely, as the idealist naively believed, the faithful conveying of information. Language is the most versatile tool of humanity, akin to magic – it has the ability to affect the world in a myriad of ways, some very powerful: the words of a king have the power to move armies. More subtly, lies may affect the world despite not conveying actual information about the world. On the surface, the Trojan horse was an offering to Athena, but hiding inside was deceitful Odysseus, using his enemies’ gullibility to defeat them. In our time, Trump is a well-known master of this art. His ridiculous statements and blatant lies do not serve to announce what he intends to do. Rather, they elicit a beneficial reaction in the audience – be it followers or foes.
To the hero, such conduct is dishonorouble. Yet, the public seems to take little offense, quickly forgetting how it has been deceived, practically begging to be lied to again. Thus, the boldest crooks rise to the top, and the hero is maligned. He may be praised after his death, but rarely does he live to enjoy the fruits of his heroic efforts.
The honesty assumption
If you have been honest and straightforward for your entire live, it is tempting to assume the same in others. Surely, most other people tend to also be honest and amicable. Unfortunately, this naive assumption is a vulnerability waiting to be exploited. When the trickster, the traitor, the sociopath, dress up as influencer, politician or journalist and lie to you, as is their profession, you will be prone to believing them.
Remember the COVID era. Why did most people engage in self-harming behaviours even where they were not coerced? Shutting themselves in at home, wearing toxic masks, poking plastic sticks up their nose, queuing for experimental mRNA injections. They didn’t come up with these on their own. Their fear was not of their own making. Rather, they followed the propaganda of scientists, journalists, politicians, who were assumed to speak the truth, even assumed to hold peoples’ best interest at heart.
Spelling it out like that, the naiveté seems absurd. But when you grow up with honesty as a core value, when your parents, your teachers and the media establish honesty as the only appropriate mode of conduct, when they imply that authorities like governments, media and science, too, are beholden to the value of honesty, it starts to make sense. If the world is generally honest, it seems justified to generally believe what you’re being told.
Inward dishonesty
To anybody who has lived in this world as an adult for more than a few years, the evidence that he is constantly being lied to is overwhelming. But admitting that he has been badly deceived, that his worldview is based on lies, that the virtue of honesty is being trampled on day by day, by the people and institutions who he trusts and believes in, is too painful.
So instead he himself starts to lie. He starts to lie to himself. This cripples him even more than the deceit he has been facing previously. Being honest with oneself is the most powerful, important form of honesty. Violating that, he is no longer able to discern between truth and fantasy, observations and lies. Everything starts to blur. He is completely defenseless against dishonesty, ready to fall for the next scam. The dishonesty, which he thought he despises so much, now thrives within and without.
The realm of honesty
Thus, we have established the minimal domain of honesty: Honesty towards one self is indispensable. In contrast, frankness towards the whole world is folly, as there is little hope for reciprocity. In between these extremes, we may find sensible boundaries for honesty. Lying to strangers, acquaintances, and colleagues may be necessary. To build lasting relationships, we need sincerity. For our kin and our tribe to rely on us, and for us to rely on them, there must be no deceit. This space of reciprocal honesty is also invaluable for personal growth: The piercing eye of a friend may uncover in a day what we have overlooked for many years. I’ve noticed I’ve lost all interest in friends as soon as I felt I could not express myself openly to them anymore. And never have I been more lonely and desperate than when I had been removed for too long from those that I trust, and forced to hold back my true thoughts. Honest expression can, of course, be extended to strangers sometimes – speaking candidly to like-minded strangers on the internet can bring new insights and perhaps even friendships.
The moral imperative to always speak the truth is therefore not entirely wrong. All it needs is a qualifier as to when it applies. As Jack Donovan might phrase it:
Be honest within your circle. Fuck everyone else.
