The Angel of Truth is in the Details

…and so is the Devil.

Wow. What fascinatingly insane times we live in, eh? I’m not an expert and I don’t like to gamble, but I’d bet a pretty penny that the severity and intensity of current psychological manipulation operations deployed by our own government against our own people is profoundly unprecedented. If anyone just took a few minutes out of their day to fact check everything for themselves, rather than parrot sensationalized headlines and let them seep through the pores of their vulnerable cognitions, maybe at least some of what’s true would actually make into the public eye.

Historically, I haven’t voiced a ton of political opinion into the neverland of the internet, in part because I instinctively recoil at confrontation, but also because I never thought I knew enough to really say much. A big reason I joined the Army when I was 18 is because I realized I knew nothing; I could feel this passion for something boiling in the waters of my soul, but passion for what? I spent years questioning “the system,” the various authorities, the philosophies underlying our thoughts and actions, and couldn’t escape the need to understand the nature of the world in a much deeper and holistic sense. I followed that feeling into the military, and after seeing the war in Afghanistan with my own eyes — the futile destruction of human life and fertile land, the fraud, waste and abuse that probably amounted to millions of dollars within my scope of experience alone — I began to understand so much more. Moreover, I began to embark on a journey that would lead me to understand the unspeakable value of things like beauty, goodness, and Truth, which I now hold today at the forefront of every effort of my life. Indeed, they are what drive me to be more vocal about my concerns. In truth, there are many aspects of the situation that alone would be quite hilarious, but the seriousness of their nautre and the gravity of their implications dissolves all humor and leaves only the very high stakes of freedom and democracy against the backdrop of a dystopian future built in the heart of our most frightening nightmares.

The military industrial complex is real. The conspiracies about entities of a truly Orwellian nature seeking to oppress all people of their freedoms is real. The fake news is real. There is so much information distortion and abuses of power happening right in front of our eyes, but most of us are too conditioned by the standard narrative to see the truth.

Interestingly, though many topics of conversation I have been presenting to the people of my life lately have been wildly uncomfortable in many ways, I’ve had thoroughly productive, enlightening, and even hopeful dialogue with many different people who hold the same concerns, even if they don’t realize we are on the same page right off the bat. Each of us is conditioned by the information we expose ourselves to. The media in all its forms that we absorb through both conscious and unconscious awareness shapes how we perceive the world, ourselves, and, most significantly right now, our government. When that media is lying to the people about what’s really going on, or distorting influential words and phrases to mean things they really don’t, or to turn the public eye away from things of true importance entirely, we the people are without the truth, which makes us incapable of making intelligent, wise decisions grounded in an honest reality.

The only thing any of us can do to combat this epidemic of cognitive and psychological manipulation is to seek the truth out for ourselves, and to engage in dialogue with each other openly, from a place that seeks to learn and understand rather than dominate and manipulate. If you don’t know about something, say you don’t know about it, and leave the comment at that. When someone points out the corruption within certain branches of the federal government like its Three Letter Agencies, a completely non-partisan but very real issue, don’t then make it a partisan one and try to argue with completely irrelevant topics of concern! While those topics themselves might be important, we should never conflate conversations the way we do now. It makes it impossible to know what’s true, and makes it impossible to find solutions, because we never get through enough conversation about the problems themselves. Like it or not, we have some serious issues on our hands as the American people. Sadly, most of us are less in tune with our own politics than most of the rest of the world. Why could that be? Perhaps because other parts of the world have a lot more at stake in terms of war and chaos than we the people do at home? Though our domestic issues are certainly nothing to turn a blind eye to, most of us have no idea what it’s like to live in constant war, famine, or refuge. You know who bears a good portion of responsibility in those matters? The Government of the United States of America. And, in turn, you and me, the citizens of this nation, who vote and pay taxes. And you know who is going to suffer the most from it? It won’t be our heroic politicians. It won’t be the wealthy mega-millionaire and billionaires. It won’t be the guys making business deals to manufacture weapons of war.

It will be all of us.

We don’t face the facts, we let our emotional vulnerabilities lead us to sacrifice all logic and pursuit of truth and relinquish our mental agencies, and, worst of all, we often refuse to let ourselves have civil conversations about it. We shut down, we get defensive, we even let relationships with people we love and care about crumble! It’s tragedy in the utmost sense.

And what all of us need to understand now more than ever, is that there is Good and Truth in this world, and it is absolutely worth fighting for.

I daresay, it is even worth dying for.

One of my favorite stories of all time is Les Miserables (long live the revolution!), and I’ve been listening a lot to the very last track on the album from the film, “Epilogue.” Jean Valjean is dying, alone in a monastery, thinking of the young woman he raised and the future she’s about to embark on with her new husband, praying them well as he begs God for death.

“Take these children, My Lord, to Thy embrace, and show them Grace…”

He sings through his dying breaths, reaching with his voice to the place of Truth, of God, of Source, knowing that he will soon be within its company upon death. When Cosette and Marius find him, the truth of his heroic actions at the barricade in saving Marius comes to Cosette’s awareness. There is a moment of deep gratitude, and profound love. Valjean says he can now die in peace, for his life is blessed with a final moment of her presence. Amanda Seyfried’s beautiful voice sings in tragic defiance, “You will live! Papa, you’re going to live! It’s too soon, too soon to say goodbye.”

For anyone who has lost anyone they love, they know it is always too soon to say goodbye. It’s a funny thing we humans do, isn’t it? Even in the face of one of life’s most surest and inescapable things, we hold our defiance in our hearts, and we do it in the name of love.

Valjean says he will try to stay, but he knows the truth.

So he gives her a letter. His last confession. The last weight of grief that he releases to the person he loves most. The greatest thing we can give to the people we love is our truths, from the good to the bad, to the honorable and to the ugly. Honesty, transparency — these things are bridges that connect us to each other, as is the Source of all connections between all things. The ghost of Fantine, played by Anne Hathaway, appears to bring Valjean to the Other Side.

She sings a prayer, “Lord in Heaven, look down on him in mercy — “

Because the deliverance of Truth is mercy —

Valjean sings a final prayer, “Forgive me all my trespasses, and take me to Your Glory — “

And his soul leaves his body, standing to walk with Fantine.

“Take my hand,” she sings, “I’ll lead you to salvation — “

For there is salvation in Truth —

“Take my love, for love is everlasting — “

The most powerful force in the universe —

“And remember, the truth that once was spoken,

To love another person is to see the face… of God.”

This last one is one of my favorite lyrics from any song ever written. Love — the face of God. The force of creation. The underlying essence that leads each and all of us to the Promised Land of Heaven, of Paradise; to the utmost greatness within and among the greater whole of humanity.

As they walk into the portrayed Afterlife, they are greeted with the song of the revolutionaries, Do You Hear the People Sing? with some slight but notable differences from its rendition earlier in the film.

“For the wretched of the earth,

There is a flame that never dies,

Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise — “

Amidst life’s greatest and most terrible suffering, there is hope —

“We will live again in freedom in the garden of the lord — “

Freedom from the suffering and evil incurred by the world’s deviance from Truth —

“We will walk behind the ploughshare — “

We will work together toward abundance and prosperity —

“We will put away the sword! — “

We will not harm or kill in violence and chaos —

“The chain will be broken,

And all men will have their reward!”

We will free ourselves and one another, and live in the way we were always intended to live: in harmony, in goodness, in Truth.

This is Heaven. This is the vision of the Declaration of Independence. It relies on each of us, and all of us. The powers that be have encroached on our freedoms and have taken our tax dollars for war for far too long! Needless destruction all around the world, and most of us have no idea about it and don’t take a moment to consider how significant our understanding, voices, and votes are to such significant matters as war and peace. Please, for the sake of everything that is good and true, think for yourself! Do not bow to the lies, the manipulation, the hatred, the violence! There is far, far too much at stake.

We live in historic times, and each of us needs to be vigilant. For sake of us and our own country, and for sake of the entire rest of the world.

So,

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?

Do you hear the people sing?

Say do you hear the distant drums?

It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes!

That future is entirely up to us.

Please. Be part of the force that clutches it and nourishes it with what is beautiful, good, and true. Being the Land of the Free is a call to action; a call for each of us to live in service of the freedoms of others, which begins by living for the freedom of ourselves.

Freedom is the greatest potential for human kind.

I will stand up for it now, and I will fight for it until the end.

And I really, really hope you will too.