{"id":1101757,"date":"2023-06-23T13:25:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T13:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/?p=13058"},"modified":"2023-06-23T13:25:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T13:25:28","slug":"the-truth-will-set-all-of-us-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/23\/the-truth-will-set-all-of-us-free\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth Will Set All Of Us Free"},"content":{"rendered":"Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley)<\/em><\/a>:<\/p> <\/iframe><\/div><\/div> <\/figure>\u2756<\/p>
\u201cYou have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can\u2019t lead to a good conclusion.\u201d ~ Julian Assange<\/p><\/blockquote>\u2018The truth will set you free\u2019 is an aphorism we\u2019ve all heard so many times it\u2019s lost a lot of its meaning and doesn\u2019t sound especially profound when we hear it again, but it really does contain the answer to humanity\u2019s most difficult problems. A truth-based relationship with reality is the only way to move into peace and harmony, whether you\u2019re talking about the inner peace and harmoniousness of an individual or the peace and harmony of our entire species.<\/p>For the individual, you can\u2019t generally come to inner peace and a harmonious way of moving in the world until you\u2019ve done a lot of inner work and gotten extremely real with yourself about your experiences, your relationships, your ways of thinking about things, your behavior patterns, and your motivations. The deepest levels of peace and freedom open up when we have transformative insights into the truth of our very nature: the nature of consciousness, mind, and self.<\/p>It doesn\u2019t come from trying to be a nicer person, from praying to the right god or espousing the right belief system. True and lasting peace and freedom comes from a penetrating realization of what is already the case. It comes from knowing what\u2019s true.<\/p>This is a bit counter-intuitive, because our minds and our culture tell us that we get peace and happiness from getting what we want \u2014 the right accomplishments, the right job, the right belongings, the right romantic partner, the right circumstances. But none of those things will ever take us where we\u2019re really trying to get to. Only the truth will.<\/p>And it\u2019s exactly the same for a group of people, and for humanity as a whole.<\/p>Real widespread change can only come from knowledge of the truth \u2014 that\u2019s why those who don\u2019t want widespread change pour so much energy into keeping people from knowing what\u2019s true. That\u2019s why there\u2019s such a frenzied push for more internet censorship and for the government to get more involved in regulating speech. That\u2019s why our civilization is saturated with propaganda. And that\u2019s why Julian Assange is in prison.<\/p>Real change will only occur when a sufficient number of people realize that we live in a profoundly unjust society held together by violence and lies, where our very existence is being imperiled by nuclear brinkmanship and environmental destruction. Because only then will enough people begin mobilizing to use the power of our numbers to force the changes we need.<\/p>Again, this is somewhat counter-intuitive, because we\u2019ve been told all our lives by our schools and our media that we get change by voting for political candidates we like. But our electoral systems are stacked against change, and the candidates are controlled by interests who seek to keep things more or less the way they are. This means change can only be arrived at by widespread forceful rejection of the entire system, and widespread forceful rejection of the entire system can only come through truth.<\/p>So the truth will set us free, but those who don\u2019t want our freedom are doing everything they can to obstruct, obfuscate and distort the truth. The good news is that there are a whole lot of us, and (for now at least) we do have the ability to share the truth about what\u2019s going on with each other. And the more people understand what\u2019s going on, the more people there are to help share the truth with others.<\/p>The first step is spreading awareness of the fact that our civilization is saturated in propaganda, because propaganda only works if you don\u2019t know it\u2019s happening. Helping people to understand that they\u2019ve been lied to their whole lives about their nation, their government, their society and their world will help shake them free from their propaganda blinders, so that they can begin to figure out what\u2019s true.<\/p>By working toward a collective understanding of what\u2019s real in this way, humanity can come into a truth-based relationship with reality, one freshly opened pair of eyelids at a time. And, just as a truth-based relationship with reality inevitably brings peace and harmony to the life of the individual, a truth-based relationship with reality will bring peace and harmony to the life of our entire species.<\/p>Truth is its own reward. It\u2019s not always pleasant when you get it, and it might not be obvious at first that it\u2019s helping to move things in a positive direction, but every step toward health and harmony begins with truth. The more opportunities we have to experience this fact in our own lives, the more obvious it becomes.<\/p>_____________<\/p>All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. My work is\u00a0<\/em>entirely reader-supported<\/em><\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on\u00a0<\/em>Patreon<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Paypal<\/em><\/a>, or\u00a0<\/em>Substack<\/em><\/a>, buying an issue of my\u00a0<\/em>monthly zine<\/em><\/a>, and following me on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Soundcloud<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>. If you want to read more you can\u00a0<\/em>buy my books<\/em><\/a>. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list\u00a0<\/em>on Substack<\/em><\/a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I\u2019m trying to do with this platform,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p> <\/picture><\/div> <\/figure>Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2<\/p> \n

This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): \u2756 \u201cYou have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can\u2019t lead to a good [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1775,7905,1865,117,804,257],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101758,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101757\/revisions\/1101758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}