Traveling through the crowd

People think that truth is so easy. You see it and do it. We forget that we have to push through the crowd to get to it. We have to fight all the limitations we have in life and understanding. We have to push through all the distractions and misleading information. We have to wage a war to get through to the truth, even our embarrassment of having ignored the truth for so long.

The movies dramatize many stories of the underdog who has to reveal the truth to those in power who deny it to protect themselves. We see it in the newspapers about the politicians who do this. We have even created a name for the activity called “putting a spin on it” or simply “a spin,” indicating that the truth is being misused for someone’s convenience. The dramatizations often show us the extremes a truth seeker has to face within him/herself and the circumstances to face and reveal the truth.

The stories reveal the real war between truth and lies. The “spinner” has chosen him/herself as the higher value to be served. Crooked politicians and business persons serve their own ends, wealth, power, prestige, and ego. They do not care or have overcome their concern for how much others suffer while they deny or cover truth for their personal convenience or benefit. Sometimes consumers have to fight their way through a salesperson who inaccurately or misleads in the representation of their products. Scammers absolutely deny the truth to gain access to accounts and money by theft. The “spinner’s” god is themselves and their personal desires to the detriment of others.

The truth seeker has a value beyond him/herself. They are often harmed or even destroyed in this pursuit, having to deny their own suffering to reveal the higher value. Whistleblowers prove the suffering caused by preferring the truth and the war caused by revealing the truth. The spinner is out for himself. The truth seeker can be harmed pursuing something more important than himself. It is a clear war of values.

Every day each of us is put at the point of choice to serve ourselves or to serve a higher value. We have models of both for our lives. We don’t honestly acknowledge how powerful the pull of selfishness is on our lives. We witness the wealthy, prominent, educated, and highly gifted and all others fall under its spell. The news, movies, and media are full of their stories, even to the point where they harass and attack those who have not fallen like themselves. It is extremely difficult and potentially painful to choose the greater over the lesser. You can see the price paid by Jesus and those who choose to be like them, but it is the best choice. Society will not survive when those who fight for the higher values are gone.