The Enemy of the Truth is the Myth

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

An Office of Strategic Studies (now the CIA) report titled “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend” Walter C. Langer stated:

His [Hitler’s] primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

Does this sound familiar? Are these rules used by politicians at every level in America today? Is truth being replaced by big lies or by myths?

Truth is now at risk in the world.

Truth is the bedrock of any moral culture and healthy society. Without truth there is no justice. Telling the truth is fundamental to the wellbeing of individuals, families, workers, leaders, law enforcement officers, members of the military, judges, juries, journalists, artists, doctors, nurses, scientists and of course the politicians.

English writer Al David wrote, “One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.” While this may be true it is also true that every myth is the mortal enemy of truth.

As John Fitzgerald Kennedy said the enemy of truth is the myth.

QUESTION: What myths are now driving the world and now our nation?

Truths and Myths

We have compiled a list of myths that have taken root in the world and many of these myths have come across the porous borders of America to destroy the truth.

The following are some of the myths we have seen over our lifetime:

1. The world is going to end because of climate change (a.k.a. global warming, global cooling, the weather).
2. Government is God (i.e. government is the only means to make you happy, healthy and wise).
3. Communism is better than capitalism (e.g. central control of the means of production is better than an individual’s right to purse his or her happiness)
4. Guns, not people, murder (e.g. the instrument used to murder another is the real culprit, not the individual using that instrument to commit murder).
5. There is no God (see #2 above). No further explanation needed.
6. Going into debt is good (e.g. nations indebting their citizens is needed in order to care for its citizens).
7. Human beings evolved from apes (i.e. you are evolved from gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, etc.).
8. Humans use only 10% of their brains.
9. Intelligent Quotient (IQ) testing is racist (e.g. testing a person’s intelligence is harmful and hurtful especially for minorities).
10. A mother killing her unborn child is a woman and only a woman’s choice (i.e. my body my choice).
11. Islam is the religion of peace and if you imply otherwise you are Islamophobic (e.g. shouting Allah Akbar in a crowded theatre is okay).
12. If you believe that gender is binary (male and female) and your believe marriage is between one man and one woman your are homophobic (e.g. J.K. Rawlings)
13. Government can spend its way out of debt.
14. Politicians have your best interests at heart.
15. Men continue to oppress women and must be stopped at all cost (i.e. the feminist movement vs the alpha male).
16. Government can provide you with everything if you just let it (e.g. Karl Marx).
17. The police are evil and must be defunded.
18. Black lives matter more than any other lives.
19. Peaceful demonstrations include looting, burning down buildings and attacking innocent individuals randomly.
20. You don’t need identification in order to vote (i.e. voter ID)
21. You can vote in any country even if you are not a legal citizen of that country.
22. Eliminating a country’s borders is a good thing.
23. Social justice trumps equal justice under the law.
24. If you are born white you are a supremacist.
25. If you believe in one all powerful God then you are an enemy of the state.
26. What you read on the internet, watch on the news and read in your local newspaper is the truth.
27. The Torah and Bible are filled with lies that have become the opiate of the people.
28. Finally, there is no need for any Jude’s Christian God but it’s okay to follow Mohammed.

Myths are now driving global public policies. Those who stand against these myths, like parents questioning what their children are taught in public schools, are now considered domestic terrorists by various governments.

Truth is absolute. The truth will set you free. Tyrants fear the truth. The truth is the greatest enemy of the state.

Myths are the preferred tools of the dictator (e.g. Hitler and the Jews). Hitler and the Nazi Party understood that, “Repeating a lie often enough and it eventually becomes the truth.”

History has proven that telling a myth often enough eventually makes the people believe that the myth is the truth.

The more “persistent, persuasive and unrealistic” the myth the better for the tyrants, the worse for the people of the world.

As Elvis Presley said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”

If you have more myths that you wish to share please add them in the comment section below and we will update this column.

Thanks for reading and sharing this column.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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