≡ Menu

“Live Not By Lies” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The simplest and most accessible key to our self-neglected liberation lies right here: Personal non-participation in lies. Though lies conceal everything, though lies embrace everything, but not with any help from me.

This opens a breach in the imaginary encirclement caused by our inaction. It is the easiest thing to do for us, but the most devastating for the lies. Because when people renounce lies it simply cuts short the lies’ existence. Like an infection, they can exist only in a living organism.

We do not exhort ourselves. We have not sufficiently matured to march into the squares and shout the truth our loud or to express aloud what we think. It’s not necessary.

It’s dangerous. But let us refuse to say that which we do not think.

This is our path, the easiest and most accessible one, which takes into account our inherent cowardice, already well rooted. And it is much easier—it’s dangerous even to say this—than the sort of civil disobedience which Gandhi advocated.

Our path is to talk away from the gangrenous boundary. If we did not paste together the dead bones and scales of ideology, if we did not sew together the rotting rags, we would be astonished how quickly the lies would be rendered helpless and subside.

That which should be naked would then really appear naked before the whole world.

So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: Whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood—of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one’s family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies—or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect both by one’s children and contemporaries.

And from that day onward he:

  • Will not henceforth write, sign, or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth.
  • Will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation not in the presence of many people, neither on his own behalf not at the prompting of someone else, either in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, not in a theatrical role.
  • Will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea which he can only see is false or a distortion of the truth whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science, or music.
  • Will not cite out of context, either orally or written, a single quotation so as to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not share completely the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue.
  • Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations or meetings if they are contrary to his desire or will, will neither take into hand not raise into the air a poster or slogan which he does not completely accept.
  • Will not raise his hand to vote for a proposal with which he does not sincerely sympathize, will vote neither openly nor secretly for a person whom he considers unworthy or of doubtful abilities.
  • Will not allow himself to be dragged to a meeting where there can be expected a forced or distorted discussion of a question. Will immediately talk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film showing if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda.
  • Will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed. Of course we have not listed all of the possible and necessary deviations from falsehood. But a person who purifies himself will easily distinguish other instances with his purified outlook.

No, it will not be the same for everybody at first. Some, at first, will lose their jobs. For young people who want to live with truth, this will, in the beginning, complicate their young lives very much, because the required recitations are stuffed with lies, and it is necessary to make a choice. Alexander Solzhenitsyn — Live Not By Lies

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Deana March 15, 2018, 9:20 AM

    The feeling one gets when reading this is the same feeling you get when reading the Bible. It is uplifting and pure and sets a course for living.

    Thank you for posting that.

  • Bill in Tennessee March 15, 2018, 10:37 AM

    So let’s begin in America by refuting one of the biggest lies currently on the American landscape, that males can become females, that females can become males, merely by saying it is so. Call them liars to their faces. Bruce Jenner, you can change your name, you can mutilate your body, you can affect effeminate ways, but you are still a male. Sorry, chum…mmmm….P! You’re a dude, get over it.

  • Leslie March 15, 2018, 4:16 PM

    I began doing this in earnest 18 years ago, when I pulled my kids out of school. I just couldn’t stomach the lies any longer, and wanted to teach my kids the Truth, unvarnished , and sometime, painful, yet, real and meaty. It took me a long time to be completely deinstitutionalized, but once I slogged out of it, the LIE becomes all you can see. Everything is touched by it.

  • ghostsniper March 15, 2018, 7:47 PM

    @Leslie: GO U!

    I was in my office one day and I got a call from our sons school, Trafalger Middle in Cape Coral, FL and the woman on the end told me our son was out processed and ready to be picked up. That was so far out there it took a moment to process. I asked her what she meant and she repeated herself. Before she way done speaking my Acme phone was suspended in mid air as if the coyote dropped it and me and my Monza Spitfire were laying long rubber down Del Prado Blvd, destination: my kids school. I threw my ride sideways in the porte cochere in front of the school and marched right in and headed for the principals office ignoring the, “Sir! SIR!!!, SIR!!!!” coming from the front desk personel. I stormed into the principal Dr. Willy’s office and demanded to know what the hell was going on right NOW!

    He scooted his chair back in stark terror and stood up and in a quivering voice asked me what I was talking about. I told him in no uncertain terms that I am here for answers and WILL get them. Quivering in terror he said, “Mr Ghost I don’t know what’s going on here but I will find out immediately.” and he got on his intercom and assembled his soldiers right there in the office in mere minutes.

    My wife was the managing editor an international trade magazine and it appeared a female employee there that didn’t like her called our son’s school and perpetrated herself as being my wife and requested that “her” son be out processed from the school as we were going to enter him in Gulf Middle a few miles away.

    We don’t know without a doubt that it was that employee that did that, but we keep our circle small and tight enough to know that there is no one else that could have done that. 2 weeks later that employee quit as the pressure at work was too much for her guilt ridden ass. FWIW, 25 years later my wife is still the managing editor of that magazine.

    Dr Willy apologized profusedly and begged me to not go to the school board.
    He was already aware of my long history with the school board and knew my stick was pointed on both ends. In 1971 I designed the model for temporary classroooms used across the entire country, hundreds of thousands have been built, and I was only 16 at the time. I designed custom homes for 4 of the current schoolboard members and a corporate office building for the lawyer that was head of his own firm and the president of the schoolboard. Dr Willy told me a couple weeks later that he had requested the schoolboard to change the way that kids are outprocessed from all Lee County school so that this error will never happen again.

    (for those of you that were public brainwashed, my wife and I could have been going through a divorce and one of us could have used this technique to “kidnap” our son so the other would never have access to him. Or, a random person, like what really happened, could have placed that call then showed up and picked him up and killed him or held him for ransom or whatever. That may very well have happened in our instance but because my office was only a few miles from the school I got there before the disgruntled employee did)

    That was the last of a long string of problems we had experienced with the public school system and frankly we were all out of patience with that intellectually bankrupt and immoral criminal institution and we pulled our kid out of it. The year was 1992 and we were done with it and we started educating our only child, our son, our legacy ourselves. He had 4 more years to go in the system but without the enormous baggage the gov’t bestows all kids he was now able to fly at lightspeed finishing his state requirements in just under 2 years. He then started college at the age of 16 at a local community college and gained his 4 year degree in 2 years. At 18 years of age he was a computer engineer and received over 200 solicitations from large corporations all across the country but he chose a small place locally that started him out at $60k per year. 18 years old, $60k. Jayziss, it took me 30 years of crawling through unbelieveable shit to get to that kind of money. I’m done bragging about our kid.

    Let’s talk about yours.
    Do you realize that when you put your kids in the public indoctrination system it is like throttling them back by at least 50%? Kids are far more capable than most people believe. My ol’ gray haired uncle once said, “Teach a kid to read, then get out of their way.”, and that’s true. They are natural knowledge sponges. Whatever you expose them to they suck in like a Hoover. Think about that for a second.

    The first question people always ask about homeschooling pertains to the *socialization” aspect.
    My response is always the same, “Do you really think having your kids associate with the imbeciles they are around all day in the public schools is a good thing?” They always sputter their weak assed arguments and then meekly finish up with, “Well it was good enough for me and I turned out OK.”

    You can care for your kids or you can talk about caring for your kids and most parents prefer the latter out of shear laziness borne in ignorance. They are victims of the lifelong brainwashing they are now forcing their own kids to endure. It’s insanity.

    Look, all kids have the state rendered privilege to use the public school system as they see fit. Just because you choose to educate your kids yourself doesn’t mean you forfeit using the school libraries or other resources. On the contrary, by educating your kids yourself you are not limited to using only the school resources, the entire world is your resource. Public school kids don’t have that option. They are limited to the schools dictate and their social skills are constrained by that of the schools, but self educated kids again, are exposed to the social aspects of the whole world.

    Public schools, you attend them for 12 years and then you pay for them for the rest of your life.

    “The real learning can’t begin until the schooling stops.”
    –gs, 2099

  • Leslie March 15, 2018, 8:56 PM

    Amen, Ghost.

  • Deana March 15, 2018, 9:40 PM

    Leslie –

    Did you lose friends when you stopped accommodating the lies? There are much worse things in life, I know, but how did the other adults around you react when you explained to them why you did what you did?

    I have lost friends in the past for simply having a different opinion than they did about homosexuality and racial / cultural issues. I was never ugly about it, I just didn’t know why we had to constantly celebrate homosexuality throughout our culture. Or why I had to be excited and supportive of that hideous play “The Vagina Monologues.” But the fact that I was not supportive of a bunch of woman using mirrors to stare at their vaginas on stage (!!!!) was enough to break some friendships.

    I’m older now and have even less desire to participate in these lies. But I acknowledge it is hard in some circles to meet others who at least honor independent thought, even if they don’t agree with you on things.

  • Leslie March 16, 2018, 9:44 AM

    I lost friends and family. Not completely cut off, but, treated less intimately, almost like an acquaintance. The attitude became, “Who do you think you are to think you can educate your children?” It was funny, because as I sat at soccer games or ballet class or with my Bunco group, I would listen, and ALL THEY DID was complain about school, about what happens in school, about the pain of the rules and regulations of going to school, about the other kids at school..etc…I just sat quietly and smiled.

  • ghostsniper March 17, 2018, 4:17 AM

    @Leslie & Deana, they weren’t friends or family at all. They were pretenders. Rotted meat. Better excised, left to rot on their own. Who needs that kind of baggage?

  • Deana March 17, 2018, 9:09 AM

    Ghost – You are right in a sense but one of the differences between men and women is that women have a higher need for social interaction, in my opinion.

    Now I am at my happiest when I’m home and working outside with my husband or just relaxing with him inside but from time to time, I need female friendship and I am here to tell you that finding women who think anywhere like Leslie and I do is virtually impossible. Online is easy but if you are a woman with her priorities in order and not constantly on that demonic Facebook or engaging in all the ridiculous antics that so many women engage in now days, you will have a hard time finding kindred spirits.

    Men, I suspect, have a greater comfort level at being independent.

  • ghostsniper March 19, 2018, 4:49 AM

    @Deana, I agree with you. The need you speak of, for my wife, had been satisfied by her mother for all these many years. Her mother died last Nov and she’s told me of the void that remains. My wife has sought relief in some of her childhood friends but all of them are now retired gov’t employees and their attitudes are repulsive. People are sparse where we live, so it is only her and me almost all of the time. I try, but can’t fill the need you’ve described. What is the answer? You and Leslie would get along well with her, I can tell.