It’s hard to get away with lying, though some appear to do so. In the short term being dishonest may bring advantage. Eventually though, there will be a reckoning which may have more impact on our life than had we been honest in the first place.

While being honest takes courage, it can be a short cut to a brighter future in the long run, allowing us to move forward without looking over our shoulder. We can be more at peace, more productive.

Yet, despite knowing in our hearts that it is best to be honest, wisdom about honesty echoing down the ages is being dismissed by the regressives (who cannot be called progressives as everything they spout is regressive). Foundation documents like the bible are being discredited, history and literature cancelled, statues and heroes torn down, children indoctrinated with patent lies of critical race theory, gender fluidity and climate catastrophe.

Wisdom Disdained

Honesty can be uncomfortable. As Winston Churchill once said, “The truth can be shockingly inconvenient. Ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is”. We must deal with it. We must deal with it or face a reckoning.

From the forgotten Ten Commandments of scripture, we are exhorted “not to bear false witness against our neighbour”. Yet so easily does reputation destroying slander slip from our tongues and our keyboards, we should expect it, because whether we are chaste as ice or pure as driven snow, we will not escape calumny.

Renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson, author of the best-selling book 12 Rules for Life, advises us to Tell the truth – or at least, don’t lie”, as “It will keep your soul from withering and dying while you encounter the inevitable tragedy of life”. Seeking the truth, Peterson believes, can allay the terrible desire to seek vengeance for tragedy.

Against persons

In the reality show of the media and the Family Court (and other Courts), daily we see prism of malice identified by Churchill and vengeance of Peterson’s insight played out to destroy people by lying to meet a particular agenda.

• A wife, after 20 years of peaceable marriage to a former champion boxer, painted him as a violent abuser when she went off on a frolic with a lesbian lover (it was his fault).  Through the prisms of malice and vengeance the ex-wife gained bulk of the goods, yet lost the love and respect of her sons and former husband.
• Potential future Prime Minister Christian Porter was outed as a rapist of a student debating colleague 33 years earlier by their ABC journalists, though police investigations had not proceeded. The Court enforced settlement against the ABC did not pursue the malice of intent to destroy Porter’s reputation and career in the process of weakening the government. A small reckoning was attained in the loss of reputation of the journalist and the communications giant.
• After six challenging tours of Afghanistan, VC winner Ben Roberts-Smith has been forced to confront yet another enemy at home. Accusations of war crimes and domestic violence have been cast against him in the media, costing his reputation and career. Ben is suing for defamation and damages. We are yet to see how this case plays out, though the claim of jealousy for his bravery award seems to have seeded malice and vengeance in the lives of accusers.
• Twenty year much awarded veteran Navy Seal, Eddie Gallagher, faced a similar experience in the USA. Eddie’s fight for his country’s freedom turned into a fight for his own freedom at home, as he, like Ben, was accused of war crimes. In true warrior spirit, Eddie endured a long process upholding his truth and 9.5 months in jail to win acquittal and freedom. His inspiring journey is outlined in a book The Man in the Arena, co-authored with his wife, Andrea Gallagher.
• An appeal to the High Court ultimately determined Cardinal George Pell innocent of charges of molesting two altar boys decades earlier. Pell had already spent 400 days in jail following conviction in lower courts. Vengeance against Catholic Church failure to reign in sexual abuse of children seems to be the prism through which media and Victorian police canvassed for lifetime potential offences by Pell, who was the most senior Australian catholic. Public conviction of Pell through the media drew condemnation from the courts.
• Biden’s climate tsar, John Kerry’s 2006 book and documentary An Inconvenient Truth, made him rich and famous. Scientific inaccuracies and predictions of global climate catastrophe that failed to emerge have been discredited in Michael Moore’s 2019 documentary Planet of Humans, as well as by countless scientific studies since. Yet Kerry’s predictions (lies) continue as part of the climate propaganda in education and policy globally (status, money, power).
• Countless allegations against former US President Trump have been safely debunked, since the main objective of removing him from the White House has been achieved (political power, vengeance and money). Reckoning is still coming for the tech giants who admit to suppression and cancelling. Like the main stream media, the techies admit to conspiracy with the Democratic Party. Since Trump’s departure CNN has faced a reckoning in the loss of 76% of its audience.

Little attention is paid to the enormous cost of lying: $trillions invested in useless “un/renewable” energy schemes; millions died because the never-Trump media trashed Trump for issues since proven true:

• Closing the border to China;
• Suggesting hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were suitable therapies for early stage COVID-19;
• Vaccines could be produced within a year;
• Strict border control is a security measure;
• 3-year Russian collusion investigation was a sham to run diversion from Hillary Clinton’s illegal destruction of emails;
• Pandemic was manufactured in a lab in Wuhan China;
• Three impeachment attempts were baseless.

 Reckoning for the Left is being realised by the people daily in the gross ineptitude of Trump’s successors, Biden and Harris. Lives have been lost unnecessarily, property and livelihoods destroyed and costs escalate inestimably as China flexes its muscle over Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific countries including ours.

Where responsibilities lie

Each of us has responsibility for honouring the truth promoting our values of individual freedom, faith and family so much under attack by the regressive Left. We can support, tangibly with donations or with our voice, those who dare to carry the banner of our beliefs. Otherwise the day of reckoning will come for us in the loss of freedom we treasure.

Main stream media (MSM), especially the ABC, has much to answer for. The hard work of journalism researching and reporting the news has become largely social activism, reporting opinions and unverified stories, many palpably untrue to a discerning viewer. Once cadet journalists came up through the ranks, learning on the job. Today would-be Watergate stars are products of learning from lefties in academia rather than through the ranks. Reckoning is coming in the guise of costly major law suits, loss of revenue from loss of patronage and decline in respect and credibility.

Ever the filters or prisms through which people judge issues affect the story. As Stephen Covey advises in his book The Speed of Trust, the reckoning for dishonesty is the loss of trust that can readily bring down governments, organisations and families. Don’t let it be us.