The Men of Rohan and Watermelon Candy
How to not hand a weapon to your enemies.
In The Two Towers, Eomer, a Marshal of the Riddermark, says to Aragorn:
"Yet you speak the truth, that is plain: the Men of the Mark do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived."
This seems like an odd saying, but Tolkien is getting at something deep about the nature of reality. Aragorn has already called the men of Rohan "wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs." They are not naive. They love truth. And it is a love of truth that guards against deception.
Proverbs often talks of evildoers who fall into the pit they have dug themselves, and speaking untruths is no exception. Those who lie often will fall into their own pit of lies. They will tangle themselves up and eventually fall, or they will forget what the truth tastes like, and it will impair all of their endeavors. Like a chef who loses his sense of taste.
"Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; whoever rolls a stone will have it roll back on him." - Proverbs 26:27
“The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.” - Proverbs 5:22
Anyone who traffics in falsehoods weakens his integrity and, therefore, his defenses. He becomes numb to falsehoods, anesthetized, and so becomes more susceptible to them. Consider individuals who fell victim to the Nigerian prince scam. Their failure to detect a falsehood was more than naivete. Like every scheme of conmen, it preyed on other weaknesses, like greed. A lifetime of dedication to the love of money prepared them to fall into that particular pit.
Words are special, though.
In his novel 1984, Orwell posited that dumbing down the language dumbs down the populace. To remove a word was to remove the ability to think about the word’s referent. Replacing “evil” with “doubleplusungood” meant that the moral category of “evil” could not be grasped in the mind. Thinking about it would be like trying to pick up a single pumpkin seed fresh from a carving. You end up pushing it around or shooting it off to a far corner of the room.
Being forced to call evil things “doubleplusungood” was a form of disarmament. Every time someone uses it, they become less likely to recognize the genuine article.
Having the right words can defend. Using the wrong words deliberately is handing a weapon to your enemy.
Why are so many people easy to deceive? Why do so many people get taken in by charlatans in politics and in business?
Because they have probably been dishonest with themselves and toward others.
We peddle in soft lies and think we come off unscathed.
We call abortion "healthcare."
We excuse porn by saying it is harmless and victimless.
Parents lie to themselves, saying, "We did the best we could."
Men with penises and prostates are called women and wield pronouns like a reverse incantation.
We treat tiny dogs like children.
Play loose with the truth, and soon you won't be able to recognize it. And if by chance you stumble upon it, you won't even care. Just like a child who has gorged herself on watermelon-flavored candy and refuses to try a dripping, delicious slice of the real thing on a hot summer day.
Aim to be more like the men of Rohan. Sing many songs filled with truth and kill lies before they touch the tip of your tongue.
Agreed the men of Rohan ought to be everyone's guides. It's why in my serials I write mostly of heroic men like them.
Interesting idea about words representing ideas, so without words it comes more difficult to conceptualize and distinguish the idea itself. It’s like a hashtable key, if you don’t have a key for an item, it may be in the array, but you can’t find it. Or maybe you can with a scan, but its too computationally difficult to do in practice. Maybe biologically similar, we need a retrieval cue for an object in the environment to access it. Otherwise perhaps it has no direct route to access, and therefore, maybe also does not get reinforced enough to permanently store.
This reminded me of the Jordan Peterson’s rule to always tell the truth, or at least do not lie. That lying leads to an eventual inability to distinguish the truth itself. It’s such a simple, powerful concept. And it works, broadly.
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Coming from the former Soviet Union, there is something that happens to people who live in an authoritarian society where you can’t speak the truth. You learn to change what you say in order to survive, which leads to strategic thinking. And these strategies often backfire long term. You game yourself. I’ve had to forcefully embrace being authentic, even at the perceived strategic disadvantage short term. It was very hard at first. But it definitely is better in the long run.
Can you write something about how to help children with learning this? Specifically, if you discipline a child, you may teach them to lie or hide things that go wrong in order to avoid punishment. But it’s better to teach them to be honest with the parents, even if they are in trouble. I usually do something along the lines of “if you are honest, I’ll help you fix it, and the consequences won’t be as bad as if you hide it”. Aha. I think it could work only in a fair system, a system of consequences not punishment. It’s not fair to deprive a child from the ability to survive if the system is unfair.