In Liars We Trust

“In war, truth is the first casualty.” — Aeschylus

“All warfare is based on deception.” — Sun Tzu, military general, The Art of War

“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” — John 2:24–25

The ‘person’ in the following thought experiment is NOT President Donald Trump or any other person, alive or dead. This is a parable, where the person represents something which I will reveal at the end.

Here’s a little thought experiment:

Let’s say you have a wealthy friend who, you find out subsequently, has personally lied[1] to you.

Would you find it difficult to trust that person?

Let’s also say that this same person continues to lie to you but never actually admits to his lies, and even flatly denies, obfuscates and covers them up.

Would you trust him?

Furthermore, let’s say that this person has a group of friends whom you do not really know, but who claim to know this person, and all of them vouch for him and say that he is telling the truth and doing good and important work.

Now would you trust him?

And then further, let’s say that some people in this group of friends have very loud voices, some have megaphones and some have public address systems, who all talk about the good things he does, but never bring up anything about the lies.

Would you trust him now?

Then even further, let’s say that you hear a few voices within that large group of friends, whose voices are clear, but quite faint and are mostly drowned out by the loud, amplified voices, yet you do hear them. They claim to have experienced the very same harmful lies, false promises and disappointments that you have experienced.

Could you trust him now?

Finally, let’s say that this person now tells you that you need to do what he says, or else.

Does that make it easier or harder to trust him, or do you find yourself too afraid not to ‘trust’ him?

I could go on with this little thought experiment, but I’ll spare you. The question is, in this simple scenario, would you be able to trust this person? I think most of us would answer no, or at the very least, we would find it very difficult to trust him.

But why? Why does lying – especially chronic deception – prevent trust and actually create distrust? Isn’t it obvious? I trust someone’s words and actions effortlessly when those words and actions are true – when they accurately represent what is true in reality. But if those words and actions represent something untrue, I honestly cannot trust that person.

Trust is not fully under our volitional control. Trust is an emotional response to someone who has proven themselves trustworthy. Whenever we meet someone new, we withhold our trust, again non-volitionally, and simply cannot trust that person until we have enough ‘evidence’ to trust them. This response of simple childlike trust is effortless and automatic and a pleasure and joy when we find someone worthy of it. But the inverse happens when someone is untrustworthy; when someone, by his words or actions, deceives us.

So when someone or some institution has repeatedly lied to you, you have two choices:

1 You can be honest with yourself and, albeit slowly over time, realize those lies are actually happening, in which you will not be able to trust.

OR

2 You can ignore the lies, rationalize them away, whether out of fear or prejudice or pride, and in the process, deceive yourself. By doing so you become complicit in the lies.[2]

I go through this little thought experiment to say this:

Our government agencies: FDA, CIA, CDC, WHO, FBI, CISA, NSA, DOE, etc, etc, have repeatedly lied to the American people and to the world. These are documentable, systemic, obfuscated, covered-up lies which tell a story about what these agencies really are about. And these lies are not just little ‘white lies;’ they are serious and in many cases damaging and even murderous.

So no, I will not ignore these lies and therefore I cannot trust these agencies. Even if I wanted to, I would end up lying to myself.

Now, applying this to the current pandemic crisis, where our government agencies are telling us to be afraid of the coronavirus, and where the media (the friends), all in lock-step, are telling us numbers of cases and deaths and masks and respirators, etc, but where a few voices, though they be faint, are saying something else, and to which all the friends are trying to drown them out  — given all of that, the question is:

Do you trust these government agencies?

I can only answer for myself — no, I do not trust them because I honestly cannot trust them.

A little known source of anxiety

Many today suffer from fear and anxiety. Admittedly, many sources may trigger it.[3] But one source is not often mentioned. That source I’ll call ‘misplaced trust,’ or the slow realization of betrayal. In the process of finding out that someone or some thing we’ve trusted may not be worthy of it, it’s the feeling we get when we slowly awaken to a vague sense of our own vulnerability. I would say that this may be a significant source of our anxiety today.

It’s like finding out the neighbors[4] you’ve known for 20 years, and who’ve been guests at your barbecues, whose kids have played and grown up with yours, who you’ve attended neighborhood meetings with, who one day, you ‘discover’ (too late) that they’d been dealing drugs to your, now, adult children – for five years! You didn’t want to believe it — you trusted them; they’d done so many good things for them. You thought they even loved your kids (and maybe they really did). But now you have to face the ugly truth: they’ve betrayed your trust and they’ve betrayed YOU. They’ve lied to you. Now, not only do you need to face this truth, but to be honest and not betray your kids yourself, you’ll also need to face them. And that very well may produce a good amount of anxiety and fear.

Conclusion

My appeal to you in saying this is that it really does come down to trust — who will you ultimately trust with your life, with your family’s lives? I believe as Christians, if we’re honest and willing to listen to those faint voices who are trying to tell us the truth, we need to apply a generous dose of wisdom and discernment. We are responsible for our own decisions, for who we listen to, for what we do and what we do not do. We are responsible to beware of liars. And liars do not go around broadcasting that they’re liars; in many cases they appear to be telling the truth.

This doesn’t mean that we reject the medical system. Most in the medical industry mean well and are doing good. But when that system, aligned with the media and government officials, etc, gives you an ultimatum, that if you DON’T trust them, you’ll die — when they basically tell you that you must not question them, but trust them implicitly; and that, if you don’t listen to them and do what they say, you are a bad person and will need to be locked up, that’s when we as Christians need to soberly ask ourselves:

Who do I trust? God or Man?

And when they claim to ultimately and categorically control your life, and offer you what they say is your only salvation, intimidating and threatening you, they interpose themselves as God. In those moments we must ask ourselves the question the saints have asked through the ages:

Will you let Man become your God?

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I appeal to you now in a different way — with the words and way of Jesus.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. — Matthew 11:28–29

Unlike the mini-tyrants today who use police and state power to coerce and intimidate, Jesus, though he may have the ‘right’ to command us, does not do this. Rather, he comes alongside us and invites us into his kingdom of love. We see him taking up his cross, and yes, despising its shame, but nevertheless, by it, showing the authorities that they really have no power over him, no power to control him with fear. He actually overcomes them with love. Their hierarchy means nothing to him. He knows that his Father holds all power and ultimately his justice will make all things right and new.

We also must prepare to take up our cross, accepting the worldly shame of it, but not fearing its physical pain or the death it may cause. For we know that our Lord carries it with us. His parting words to his disciples were: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

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[1] By lying I mean all manner of deception. For the many ways of deception see for example the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception

[2] See also: Lie: I’m immune from deception.

[3] See for example Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve. His five core characteristics of anxious social systems are: reactivity, herding, blame displacement, quick-fix mentality, and lack of differentiated leadership. For a summary see: https://alastairadversaria.com/2012/01/10/summary-of-edwin-friedmans-a-failure-of-nerve-part-2/

[4] Admittedly this is a dramatic example, but I needed to get the point across and provide a parallel to the seriousness of our dilemma today.