Introduction
Just before Solzhenitsyn was exiled to the West, he left his motherland with a world-class essay called “Live Not by Lies”. It was his parting exhortation to his Soviet brethren, imploring them to refrain from cooperating with the lies of their leaders. This bold and confronting piece has some brilliant lessons to teach us today. The lesson I learned from Solzhenitsyn here was that the first and most basic step towards our liberation from tyranny is to refuse to participate with the lies.
What Lies?
Over the past two years, our nation has been bombarded with lies from our government and its media. Back in September of 2020, our Prime Minister said that there would be no forced vaccinations and that those who chose to opt-out would face no penalties. Newshub even said that it was “conspiracy theorists” who were promoting the idea that there would be mandatory vaccines.[1] In August of 2021, Auckland went into a “one-week” lockdown in order to “go hard and go early”, in response to one COVID case in the community.[2] That “one week” was a lie. It actually ended up being more than fourteen weeks before restrictions were lifted. Then in November of 2021, there was the secretive passing of COVID legislation without consultation[3] and the complete curbing of the Bill of Rights.
While all this is happening, throughout the past two years, there has been vicious censoring of any and all dissent. World experts are being banned from Twitter and we are unable to even link to their material,[4] doctors are fired and punished for rejecting the mainstream narrative.[5]
Now, I know enough about human nature to see what is going on here. Every other time I see one side trying to viciously silence opposing views, it is always because the ones doing the silencing have no ability to respond to their objections. This is why the Critical Theory loonies want to label all conservatives as racist, homophobic bigots, and why our government wants to pass its Conversion Practices Bill. This is why the doomsday climate folks want to cancel any scientists who challenge their false prophecies. This is why the elites want a monopoly on the narrative regarding everything from elections down to gender.
People in power always find it easier to silence their opposition through the exercise of force. The last thing they want is for everything to be exposed in the light and for people to make up their own minds. If that isn’t what is going on here, then why are they acting like it is?
The Problem of Cowards
In New Zealand in 2022, human nature is not so different from that of Russia in 1974. People are much the same. Like them, people here have willingly gone along with the foolish mandates and become state actors. Punishing and disciplining the non-compliant. Out of cowardly self-preservation, men have abandoned principle and embraced the lies. They have thrown people to the crocodiles, hoping to be the last ones eaten. Men have capitulated and compromised hoping that they would not have to pay the price. But there is always a price to be paid. The cowards of our day won’t pay the price of straying from the herd, or social exclusion, or losing their job. However, they will pay the price of losing any strength of character that they might have had. They will squander the liberty and freedoms that their ancestors fought and died for. They will pay the price of diminishing their own soul.
“We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up 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 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; we are forever content and comfortable with its premise”
The price one pays by making himself complicit with the sins of the state is not worth it. What does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul? This is not the time for cowards. Our children are watching us. They are learning from us. Unfortunately, many men are teaching the next generation to have spines of jelly.
No Excuses
“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… 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?”
Counterfeit masculinity excels at making excuses whereas true masculinity voluntarily takes on responsibility. In our climate, there is no shortage of excuses. “This shouldn’t be the hill to die on”, “It’s not a gospel issue”, and “It’s the law, we have to obey”. Oh, and let’s not forget the ol’ faithful “but Romans 13”.
Weak people love excuses, and they love pointing to the fact that they have not been given any specific command to address this specific injustice. Many who recognise the wickedness of the vaccine mandates will glibly go along with them, reasoning to themselves that it is not their problem to deal with. Or hoping that it will pass before too much damage is done.
This mindset is the exact opposite of what was modelled to us by our Lord. From his example, we see that men are called to imitate him by willingly giving of their strength for the sake of others. Christian men should voluntarily spend themselves, give of themselves, face harm for the sake of others. Christian leaders should be the first to face retribution for the sake of their people. This is the example given to us by Christ. Yet today, countless churches and Christian institutions have played ball with the state. Countless good people have lost jobs and faced social exclusion while their leaders have folded and bended to meet the ever-changing standards.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10-12)
By God’s common grace, there are many everyday people who are doing the right thing and refusing to participate in the two-tiered discrimination of our government. Gym owners, café owners, and restaurant owners. In God’s kindness, many non-Christians have seen through the deceit before our church leaders. At this point, there is no excuse for Christian leaders to be participating with the lies.
“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 rule 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. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”
Don’t be Cattle
For anyone wishing to live by principle and protect the integrity of their soul, life will be difficult. If you have principles that you have resolved to live by, then severe punishment can always be right around the corner. Those who have such principles will know exactly what I’m talking about when I say this. If you have resolved never to support or promote the LGBT agenda in any way, then your career could implode when HR asks you to wear the rainbow badge for all of June. If you have resolved never to discriminate in your church or Christian institution, you are now stuck facing the wrath of the state. A thousand other examples of potential danger exist for those of us who seek to live by our principles. Compromised men know nothing of this for they will constantly bend and mould their principles to fit their current situation so that they too never “technically” violate them. In reality, they never violate their principles because they have none.
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.
In sum, the third vital lesson from the gulags is this; don’t be cattle, don’t be a coward, don’t seek only self-preservation. Live not by lies. Let the rule of lies hold not through you!
[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-confident-enough-kiwis-will-get-covid-19-vaccine-for-herd-immunity-without-being-forced-to.html
[2] https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-go-hard-and-early-than-light-and-long-new-zealand-pm-on-snap-lockdown-2512930
[3] https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018822626/rushed-laws-a-constitutional-disgrace-law-prof
[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364679/YouTube-Twitter-delete-Joe-Rogan-interview-scientist-helped-invent-MRNA-vaccines.html
