Live Not By Lies
Live Not By Lies
By: Rod Dreher
“In our time, the emerging totalitarianism is softer, smarter, and more sophisticated—but is no less totalitarian for it... it is built on the oldest lie of all, the one the serpent whispered in the Garden, the father of every other lie: ‘Ye shall be as gods.’”
The lies referenced by the title stem from this idea. There is a narrative in our culture that is redefining reality and selling a freedom and happiness that sounds and feels good, but is playing to our deepest desire as fallen human beings- to be God. To be “free” of any obligation or thing that stands in the way of our comfort and happiness. And the very thing they claim to be "freedom" is actually a prison. Read this book and consider the implications of what can be observed about our culture and politics right now and how it affects our faith as Christians.
"Live Not By Lies" could be classified as alarmist, yet the author makes some very interesting and important points about what is happening in our country today and what the consequences could be. Like anything we read- we need to think for ourselves, think critically, and seek truth; so while I wouldn’t accept all of Dreher’s thoughts as facts, I find many of his observations super important to think about and useful to recognize dangerous things in our government and our culture- especially as Christians. I’ll share some of them here, conclude with my main criticisms, and then share some of the multitude of quotes from the book that are particularly interesting.
Dreher spent time interviewing Americans who previously lived under communist rule and discussed how a lot of what is happening in American politics and culture today is reminiscent of what they experienced leading up to the Communist/totalitarian takeover of their respective countries. In summary: identity politics, isolation, the reinventing of language, the demonizing of dissenters from the cultural narrative, therapeutic morality, the policing of free speech, the dismantling of the family, and surveillance technology.
He writes: “Elites and elite institutions are abandoning old-fashioned liberalism, based in defending the rights of the individual, and replacing it with a progressive creed that regards justice in terms of groups. It encourages people to identify with groups—ethnic, sexual, and otherwise—and to think of Good and Evil as a matter of power dynamics among the groups... [they] seek to rewrite history and reinvent language to reflect their ideals of social justice. Further, these utopian progressives are constantly changing the standards of thought, speech, and behavior.”
Identity politics are really being pushed right now. We, as humans, already have the tendency to group things and people because that’s how our brains process and try to understand. Take any psychology class and you will run into this (in-group/ out-group etc) where people tend to identify closer with others who are like themselves in some way and once they find their group identity they tend to view others outside their group in a more negative way. Our culture right now is forcing people to categorize large groups of people and are then putting labels on them: minorities= good; white men= bad; LGBTQ= good; Christians= bad; anyone who votes for Trump= bad; everyone who does not vote for Trump= good. No exceptions. There is a lot of danger when we judge people by their “group” instead of as individuals. We quickly lose our humanity.
“Loyalty to the group or the tribe is at the core of leftist identity politics... This is at the root of “cancel culture,” in which transgressors, however minor their infractions, find themselves cast into outer darkness"
This polarization of those who accept the ideology and those who dissent is more alarming when paired with the knowledge of where our technology is today. Dreher brings up China’s social credit system. We recently went to China and heard about it. Using their surveillance tech, they award citizens social merits or demerits based on behavior; these credits then dictate what kinds of jobs they have, the money they make, and the travel they are allowed to do. I doubt America will get to that level, but: “What is to stop private entities that control access to money and markets from redlining individuals, churches, and other organizations they deem to be bad social actors and denying access to commerce? China shows that it can be done, and how to do it... It is not at all difficult to imagine that banks, retailers, and service providers that have access to the kind of consumer data extracted by surveillance capitalists would decide to punish individuals affiliated with political, religious, or cultural groups those firms deem to be antisocial.” This was particularly jarring to me- I'm one who had said, I don’t care if companies or the government collect data because I’m not doing anything wrong. But I hadn’t thought about the implications of being denied access to things because I disagree with the ideology of the mob. Hopefully we never become a cashless society.
The reinvention of language is also huge. Obviously, there are plenty of words that are now rightly labeled offensive that were acceptable in the past. But I agree with Dreher that right now there is a severe policing of language and redefining of words that is really just laying the foundation for control. It is another way to control people’s thinking and creates easily identified “dissenters” and demonizes them, publicly and loudly, as evil.
“According to Hannah Arendt, the foremost scholar of totalitarianism, a totalitarian society is one in which an ideology seeks to displace all prior traditions and institutions, with the goal of bringing all aspects of society under control of that ideology. A totalitarian state is one that aspires to nothing less than defining and controlling reality. Truth is whatever the rulers decide it is.”
Dreher acknowledges that it is unlikely that America will look like the Communist Soviet with their extreme torture and gulags, but we must be aware of soft-totalitarianism creeping into our country. Propaganda is a trademark of totalitarianism. Unlike the mainly political power of dictatorships, totalitarian governments create an entire ideology they require you to accept and operate by. They want to manipulate the way you think, behave, feel, and believe. To resist these totalitarian-esque movements we must not live by their lies. Both publicly and privately. “Sometimes silence is an act of resistance. Not just standing up for the truth by communicating loudly—keeping silent when you aren’t expected to be silent. That, too, is telling the truth.”
Therapeutic Moralism is an important term to be familiar with and an ideology we have to be sensitive to. Christians are equally susceptible to this kind of thinking as secularists. It is the idea that morality is based on feelings and that God just wants us to be nice and happy. "In therapeutic culture, which has everywhere triumphed, the great sin is to stand in the way of the freedom of others to find happiness as they wish." How could anyone stand in the way of someone’s happiness? Well, if morality is defined according to an individual’s feelings and there is no external authority for what is right and wrong, how would anyone agree?
Even more seriously, for Christians, this idea of “freedom” and happiness is a direct threat to our faith. It can be seen in the prosperity gospel touted by people like Joel Osteen, Rachel Hollis and others who preach self-promotion, love of self, follow your dreams, you deserve success, wealth, health and happiness, and you are in control of whatever life you want ideology. If our lives are centered on self, they are not centered on God. God did not create us so that we could spend our lives seeking personal fulfillment and success according to the world’s standards. No, we are set apart and created to glorify God, not ourselves. And if we are seeking the world’s freedom, comfort, and happiness, we will not stand for truth. The Bible does not teach that the Christian life will be free from suffering. In fact, it guarantees it. But a government that wants to control its people will disguise their ideology with a mask of freedom and happiness- something we all, in our fallen nature, love to align with; all this to the devil’s pleasure. As Christians, are we willing to suffer for our faith? Are we willing to experience public discomfort and ostracization for the sake of truth? Because with therapeutic morality, that is what is at stake.
Another characteristic evident in a people susceptible to totalitarian manipulation, is isolation: “...we grow ever lonelier and more isolated. It is no coincidence that millennials and members of Generation Z register much higher rates of loneliness than older Americans, as well as significantly greater support for socialism. It’s as if they aspire to a politics that can replace the community they wish they had... A polity filled with alienated individuals who share little sense of community and purpose are prime targets for totalitarian ideologies and leaders who promise solidarity and meaning.” I am not surprised by this. As Christians, we know that one of the greatest tools of the devil is isolation. If we are separated from a support system who encourages us in truth and helps us sort out his lies, we can easily be swayed to believe really anything.
I'm running out of space to cover it all. So moving on.
My main criticisms of this book are lack of Scriptural content and no emphasis on God’s sovereignty. After a quick google search, I’m still not sure what kind of faith Rod Dreher has and what his views on the Bible are. Since he made a few references to Paul’s teachings on suffering and this book was promoted by Tim Challies, it would seem as though he believes what the Bible teaches, however, he misses a lot of opportunities to share Scripture and Jesus’ own suffering. He almost gave a bigger spotlight to Christians who died for their faith (people he called Saints) than to Jesus himself.
Additionally, when speaking of the future and future suffering and speculating about what could potentially befall our country, I was disappointed that he spent very minimal space bestowing hope in the sovereignty of our Lord who is the Author and Sustainer of all things. Who decides which kingdoms rise and fall. Who has already defeated sin and death. Whose plans are above all ours. Yes, we need practical application and his suggested action steps could be valuable in preparing to suffer for our faith, but more powerful than any other emotion is hope. And what hope is there but the hope that lies in the only One who literally ordains every single thing down to the roll of dice. It seems a bit irresponsible to write an entire book on the danger and destruction that looms without emphasizing God’s sovereignty over it.
I find these quotes profoundly relevant:
All the lies, and lies about lies, that formed the communist order were built on the basis of this foundational lie: the communist state is the sole source of truth. Orwell expressed this truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
“[God] does not want admirers; he wants followers. As Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God suffered with humanity to redeem humanity. He calls us to share in his passion, for our sake and the sake of the world. He promises us nothing but the cross. Not happiness but the joy of blessedness. Not material wealth but richness of spirit. Not sexual freedom as erotic abandon but sexual freedom within loving, mutually sacrificial commitment. Not power but love; not self-sovereignty but obedience.”
If nothing else, this book is a reminder that we CAN know Truth, and it's not just whatever is loudest. Seek Truth, and be willing to suffer for Him. Earthly kingdoms come and go, the earth will pass away, but His Word is eternal and so are our souls.
Other Quotes:
”Social justice warriors ranks are full of middle-class, secular, educated young people wracked by guilt and anxiety over their own privilege, alienated from their own traditions, and desperate to identify with something, or someone, to give them a sense of wholeness and purpose. For them, the ideology of social justice—as defined not by church teaching but by critical theorists in the academy—functions as a pseudo-religion.... They too believe that justice depends on group identity, and that achieving justice means taking power away from the exploiters and handing it to the exploited.”
”Communism attempted to break apart the family by maintaining a monopoly on education and teaching young people to be dependent on the state. It also sought to lure the young away from the church by convincing them that the state would be the guarantors of their sexual freedom.”
”Perhaps no country on earth has been more future-oriented than the United States of America. We are suckers for the Myth of Progress... but this does not mean that all changes improve upon the past inevitably. It also doesn’t mean that “progress,” divorced from God is progress at all. In fact, progress can become very dark in a secular context, without a biblical understanding of human fallibility and without the God of the Bible as the author of history and the judge of the earth.”
”Christians today must understand that, fundamentally, they aren’t resisting a different politics but rather what is effectively a rival religion. This is how it was for young Russians of the late nineteenth century, who embraced Marxism with the fervor of religious converts. It gave its devotees a narrative that helped them understand why things are the way they are, and what they, as Marxists, should do to bring about a more just world. It was an optimistic philosophy, one that promised relief and bounty for all the peoples of the world.”
”Consumerism is how we are learning to love Big Brother... He is not exactly who we expected him to be... He’s a salesman, he’s a broker, he’s a gatherer of raw materials, and a manufacturer of desires. He is monitoring virtually every move you make to determine how to sell you more things.. learning how to direct your behavior..[He] is laying the foundation for soft totalitarianism, both in terms of creating and implementing the technology for political and social control and by grooming the population to accept it as normal.”
”Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.- The Party Slogan, 1984”
If true, these are alarming: https://victimsofcommunism.org/annual...
[Pro tip: read the e-book to easily look up terms and access footnotes]
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