0:07 - The Harm of Lies
5:30 - Reputation and Its Value
8:36 - The Consequences of Slander
10:45 - The Role of Society
12:35 - Morality vs. Martial Defense
16:04 - The Impact of Gossip
19:42 - Demoralization of Society
20:34 - The Domino Effect of Lies
In this lecture, the speaker explores the profound consequences of slander and false testimony, drawing on biblical wisdom from Proverbs 25:18 to illustrate how damaging lies about a person's character can be. The lecture begins with a vivid comparison, describing slander as akin to being wounded by a rock, sword, or arrow. This analogy sets the stage for a deep examination of the value of reputation and the dangers posed by those who spread falsehoods.
The discussion delves into the reasons why slander can be so devastating, emphasizing the effort and time it takes to build a good reputation. The speaker likens a person’s reputation to wealth that must be diligently cultivated; just as a farmer invests years of work into cultivating a fertile land, a person must act honorably and consistently to earn a commendable reputation. However, when slander can easily destroy this reputation, the incentives for moral behavior diminish significantly. The ripple effects of this destruction extend beyond the individual to society at large, as communities and economies thrive on the trust established through honest and reputable interactions.
Continuing with the exploration of this theme, the speaker addresses the societal implications when individuals witness slander and choose to participate in it rather than challenge or verify the claims made against their peers. A culture that accepts slander invites a chilling effect on virtue, as it operates under the premise that one's reputation can be effortlessly tarnished by false accusations. Consequently, individuals may choose not to pursue honorable actions, fearing the repercussions of a potentially unjust public perception.
The lecture highlights the reciprocal relationship between a society's moral standing and its willingness to protect the integrity of its members. In a healthy society, people are encouraged to verify claims before spreading gossip, and those who engage in slander face social ostracism. Conversely, in a society where false testimonies are readily accepted, good individuals become disillusioned and less inclined to contribute positively to their communities. The speaker draws parallels between the need for societal morals and the motivations required for individuals, such as soldiers, to defend their society against external threats.
The discussion turns personal as the speaker reflects on their own experiences with the media and public perception, recounting how their attempts to protect the vulnerable were met with betrayal and slander. This personal anecdote serves as a powerful reminder of the real-world implications of false testimony, further emphasizing that once a reputation is compromised, restoration becomes nearly impossible.
In conclusion, the speaker reiterates the connection between slander and societal collapse, stressing that when good people are not protected from lies, they become disenchanted and disengaged from the collective moral fabric. The lecture serves as a poignant reminder of the biblical proverb's wisdom and underscores the necessity of fostering an environment where truth prevails, ultimately sustaining the integrity and safety of society.
[0:00] Oh, right. This is Bible verses. This is Proverbs 25, 18, which is telling lies about someone.
[0:08] It's as harmful as hitting with a rock, wounding with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow. Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor. That's just really interesting. And of course, a tiny bit personal to me, but this is really interesting. Why defamation? I mean, slander, defamation, whatever, right? Let's just say defamation. Why? Nah, let's go with slander. Slander's more juicy. So, why would it be so damaging to tell lies about someone, to gossip, to put them down? Well it's because when you slander someone which is you know saying things about them that are negative and false and usually highly negative right so when you slander someone or participate in that what you're doing is you are destroying the value of having a good reputation which takes many years or decades to build up. So we all know that if thieves come along and steal stuff, then there's no point accumulating wealth.
[1:25] Why would you bother, as a farmer, for instance, why would you bother putting together an amazing parcel of land and trying to figure out, like working days and nights to try and figure out a better way to grow crops? Why would you put in all the effort to plant and experiment and maybe splice some crops together? Father, why would you put out all of the money to hire people to pick your crops? Well, you would do that in general because the accumulation of capital that you would gain, you would take all these crops to the market and you would sell them. And then you would use that money to maybe buy more land or there's a dowry for your daughters or whatever else you would use the money for. But it would be worth putting in decades of work to become a really really good farmer.
[2:21] Because you could keep the proceeds of your farm work and this is why if somebody comes along like you do all of this you work for 20 years to become a really good father you finally hit it farmer sorry you finally hit it big and then you have a bunch of gold and then somebody just comes along and steals all your gold, the ripple effect of that is enormous, right? It's not just that you probably won't have any real incentive to gather together your gold anymore to be a good farmer, which means huge amounts of excess crops no longer get built. But it's the ripple effect too, which is that everyone else is like, oh, did you hear about Bob? You know, Bob had worked really hard, had all this money, and they just came and cleaned him out, you know, whether it's the government or a private thief, so to speak.
[3:09] It's even worse if it's the government or, as is often the case, the private thief acts knowing that the government either won't prosecute him or will prosecute Bob for defending his property, right? In most totalitarian situations, the purpose of the government is to prevent you from responding to thieves, to prevent you from protecting your property.
[3:31] So, the lives of millions of people hang in the balance of whether Bob gets to keep his gold. Because not just Bob. Other people are like, oh, forget that. Forget that. I mean, the same things happens under capitalism, where if you become too prominent economically, the state may act against you, right? If you are trying to reduce the size and power of the state, or at least not working lockstep with it. So, for the population to be sustained, thieves have to be restrained. It's the same thing with housing, right? If Billy builds a bunch of houses and then people just squat in them, they just squat in them and he can't get them out and they just take his stuff, then he's not going to build any more houses and the story is going to spread and no more houses really are going to be built.
[4:27] I mean, we understand this from an economic standpoint. If your social media accounts, right, I worked for 15 years building up social media accounts, if they can be taken away on a whim with no recourse and for no particular clearly stated, with no warning and with no particularly clearly stated violation, then people will stop accumulating social media stuff right or if they do try to do it they'll stay very they'll color very much within the lines so it's this this chilling effect it's not just that the thief steals from bob or billy the thief steals from everyone else who will no longer bother to accumulate resources and grow a lot of food or build a lot of houses, he's stealing from them as well. The ripple effect is enormous when it comes to this kind of thievery. But it's exactly the same with reputation.
[5:31] So, to accumulate a good reputation is to act in an honorable and consistent and moral manner for years or decades.
[5:41] However, if someone can come along and destroy your reputation and other people go along with it and so on, if other people can just come along and destroy your reputation, then there's no point accumulating a good reputation.
[6:00] If you have a bunch of gold because you're a fantastic farmer and it took you decades to achieve that, somebody just takes your gold, there's no point being a fantastic farmer. People only then end up growing for what they themselves need and the city starve to death. Or you end up in this situation where the farmers are accused of hoarding, right? Because the government just wants to take all their grain. So, the government is accused of hoarding. I'm sorry, the government accuses farmers of hoarding, comes and takes all their stuff, there's no seed crop, and you end up with, you know, terrible, horrifying, brutal famines like the Holodomor. So, when it comes to the value of gaining a good reputation, if there is a practical value to getting a good reputation, then people will pursue a good reputation. They will act honorably, they will be honest, they will keep their promises, they will fulfill their contracts, they will pay their bills, they will, you know, do all of these good things, right? But if the good reputation can simply be taken away, then there's no point doing it, and therefore the incentive to be good and moral and righteous and honest and have integrity and keep your word and fulfill your contracts and pay your bills.
[7:18] Well, there's no point accumulating any of that. There's no point accumulating virtue if it can just be taken away with a whisper campaign. And it's really even worse than gold. A loss of reputation is worse than a loss of gold in many ways, because at least with gold, you can maybe put it in a bank, you can hire guards to keep it, but there's nobody you can hire to protect your reputation. There's nobody, there's no guard, because it just takes one malicious, vengeful a-hole to start spreading rumors about you, and you don't even know that it's happening, other than you maybe see some funny looks from people or some negative response from people. You can almost never find out who started it, and you can't fight against it. So you can guard your land you can guard your property you can take a portion of your wealth and use it to guard your wealth.
[8:25] Your reputation is seed in a field. The birds come by and peck away at it and take it away and there's really not much you can do about it.
[8:36] Now, what happens in society when integrity is wantonly robbed? Well, people don't want to be good or virtuous or honest or have integrity anymore, at least in the public square. But that's only part of it. What happens with slander is you end up in a situation where moral men and women, historically, generally men in the public square, historically, men view society as repugnant and repulsive.
[9:13] Because slander only has legs if people walk it from place to place. In other words, if somebody says to you, oh, did you hear that Bob cheated on his wife and has had sex with one of his donkeys and now has a brain-rotting sexually transmitted disease? Did you hear that? Now, that's somebody attempting to slander Bob, right? Now, if the person who's listening says, I don't think that's true, but I'll tell you what, Let's go and talk to Bob. And they grab them by the ear and they hold them down to Bob and they say, why don't you repeat to me what you told me about Bob, but repeat it with Bob in the room.
[9:59] Even if they don't want to grab the person by the ear, if they say, I'm going to go straight over to Bob's house and I'm going to check this out because this does not seem believable to me at all. This does not seem believable to me at all. And then they go and they check with Bob and Bob is like, well, no, this is all completely crazy. My health is good. Of course, I haven't cheated on my wife. This is all false. And then the community goes back to the original gossiper and demands to know where he got that information and they trace it back and they're rigorous, right? And they work very hard to protect the value of Bob's reputation from a liar and a slanderer, right? That's what an honorable society does.
[10:45] That's what an honorable society does is at the moment it starts hearing terrible things about Bob, it will work as hard as possible to verify them and then it will severely punish the liars and the slanderers, severely punish them. It will ostracize them.
[11:05] Economically, religiously, socially, people will no longer have anything to do with the liar and the slanderer. So that's what an honorable society does. Now, a cheap, sleazy, dishonorable crap stain of a society, what it will do is it will say, oh my God, really? Oh, wow. Bob cheated on his wife, and Bob has a sexually transmitted disease he got from a donkey. Oh, my God. And they go, did you hear? Right? And they will go, and they will destroy Bob's reputation with glee and abandon, with happiness, with sadism. Okay? And then, because once you've participated in slander, you can never have a good reputation in your own mind.
[11:52] You can't have a good conscience. And you can't say it's really important to tell the truth, and it's really important to be honorable, and it's really important not to lie about people because you've already participated in a slander. So good people no longer want to help your society. Good people no longer want to improve the morals of your society. I mean, this is the case I made many years ago, almost 20 years ago now, the trial and death of Socrates, that Socrates got so disgusted by Athens that he gave them the final curse of obeying the state, which sealed their fate. Or, you know, you could argue that maybe that's what Plato had to write so he didn't end up with the same fate.
[12:36] Now, there are two ways in which a society is defended. One is morally and the other is martially. Now, the martial tends to become more important as the moral of the society fails. So, for instance, if you have, let's picture an imaginary situation. I know this is a little bit off the beaten path, but let's say that you have a really good relationship to your society and there are taxes involved. The taxes are small, they're reasonable, and you get great services. And like, let's just sort of picture that scenario. Like it's, I know it's a pure theoretical, but let's just say it, right? So your taxes are like 2% and you get, you know, great streets and a really good justice system and you get a really good police and the society is sort of safe and clean and all of that. It's 2%, right? And you really admire the people running the government and they really work to make sure that they provide as much value as possible to their citizens, right?
[13:42] Will you need a lot of enforcement of a couple of percentage points of your income with clear and measurable and valued and valuable goods and services provided by the state? Well, no. I mean, there'll be a few people who won't pay, but most people will simply pay in the same way that if you're a really good waiter, people will tip you. They don't have to, but they will in general. I mean, I worked as a waiter for many years. Heck, I still work for tipsfreedomain.com slash donate. Life is a circle.
[14:15] Now, as the government services begin to decay and as the government power and corruption begins to grow, people don't really want to pay their taxes as much anymore. So then you need all of this enforcement and chasing after people and so on, right?
[14:31] So if there's a moral case that's valued, the martial case is much less, or there's much less requirement for the martial case. So if we have a society where moral people keep their reputations and anybody who tries to lie about the moral people ends up being, you know, dragged out and humiliated and it doesn't work and they're ostracized and so on and they have to pay restitution, like all this kind of good stuff happens, then moral people admire society and want to add to its virtue and will encourage people to be good and will have a respect for the society and so on, right? So that's how that works. Now, you've probably seen this kind of stuff as well recently where the soldiers or people who are traditionally soldiers in America, certainly under the last administration, did not seem to be overly keen to sign up to be a soldier for America. You know, it's one of the issues with spending $2 trillion and 20 years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban is that you have destroyed the incentive for many people, if not most people, to want to honorably serve in the military in order to do and to protect America.
[15:46] So that's not good because, and again, certainly under the last administration, I don't know what's going to happen with this one exactly, but the Americans now are no longer enthusiastic soldiers of virtue, they are rationally calculating mercenaries of benefits.
[16:05] So if moral men and women look at society and see that society enthusiastically participates in lying about moral men in order to destroy their reputations then they will have private virtues for sure and they will have private virtues for sure because private virtues in your business and in your personal and romantic and family life are good they're good but public virtue? No. No, why would you do all of the extraordinarily hard work of having and building and maintaining a reputation if it can simply get taken away and you can go from having a good reputation to not just having your good reputation taken away, but have it be replaced with a bad reputation to go from being perceived as honorable to being perceived as crazy, twisted, evil, whatever it is right why would you bother doing that in the public square and given that you know this about your society that the general population is so freaking stupid that they will get a tiny, momentary transitory thrill from participating in the sharing and spreading of salacious and false gossip that they will absolutely destroy the moral heart of their society but why on earth would you care what happens to that society See you next time.
[17:29] I grew up in England and in, you know, various, you know, England and Ireland, in fact, and in the various houses and schools and locations and neighborhoods and places that I lived, nobody ever intervened in the child abuse that I was experiencing, which was very loud and very violent. And then after I became, after I went public with the child abuse that I had experience and then tried to help other people who were also other adults who were victims of child abuse. It started in England, but the media turned on me, rushed to protect the abusers and to attack the virtuous. Well, I mean, that's a drag. Don't get me wrong. That's a drag. But on the other hand, I actually don't have to care what happens to England anymore. I did my best.
[18:25] I did the people will have to rush to defend England, but it ain't going to be me. I did my best. So when society enthusiastically and in a cowardly fashion, a cowardly, sadistically joyful fashion, tears down unjustly the honorably earned and acquired reputation of moral men and women, then you will end up with very quickly a distinct lack of supply of honorable men and women. And then from there, you end up with fewer soldiers who are willing to risk injury and death in order to protect the society. See, the soldiers have to like the society in order to risk maiming and death to protect it. And if the society is just full of sad, pathetic, scurrilous, weaselly people who just turn like a bunch of pathetic jackals on any decent lion in the environment, Well, it's not really worth defending. I mean, this is the demoralization of a society. One of the best ways to achieve the demoralization of the society is to encourage people to gossip.
[19:42] The reputations of good men and women so that the value of being honorable is not just eliminated, but reversed.
[19:51] And that way, moral men and women don't want to protect society because society does not protect moral men and women. It has to be reciprocal. And then when moral men and women don't want to protect society, you don't end up with honorable myths that drive the martially inclined the soldiers to protect the society as a whole, right? So that you end up with, there's no honor in society because it's all been torn down by the petty, vicious, stupid mob. And because there's no honor in society, people don't create the necessary myths that drive the soldiers to want to protect the society. And then the society is destroyed. It's taken in from outside, it collapses from within, it's over.
[20:35] So, telling lies about someone, the Proverbs 25, 18, telling lies about someone is one of the central dominoes that destroys the entire society. And, of course, smart people would tell children that, and it certainly comes in through the Bible, right? That if you lie about good people, good people won't protect your society, and they won't encourage soldiers to protect your society and you'll get taken over and turned into a slave or killed. So there's a direct sort of causal set of dominoes between lying about a good man and being killed or sold into slavery.
[21:14] Telling lies about someone, Proverbs 25, 18, is as harmful as hitting with a rock, wounding with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow, like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Now, I mean, I know that the chain of reasoning isn't laid out in this kind of way, but I would argue, of course, that it's worse, you know, hitting with a rock, because you can hire people to guard you from being hit with a rock, but you can't hire people to maintain and patrol your reputation. So I hope this helps. I hope that this is obviously fairly bitterly won knowledge as a whole. This was certainly my thought process when I abandoned politics, lo, these four and a half years ago, because I was like, okay, so I've been deplatformed and I'm twisting in the wind and nobody's really jumping up to defend or invite me back in. And so, good luck, everyone. I'm turning to other topics. And we can sort of see how that sort of played out as a whole. So, I hope that this helps. And I'd love to hear what you think about this Bible series. I'm really enjoying it. And it's really getting to sort of the root of my moral education as a young man.
[22:30] I lived in church as a boy, and I'm finding it very helpful and interesting. If you would like to help out the show, I would hugely, deeply and humbly appreciate it at freedomain.com slash donate. So, lots of love from up here, my friends. Take care. I look forward to your feedback. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
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