By: Ddr. Štefan Šumah
“What is truth?” Pilate asked mockingly – and did not wait for an answer. Some people clearly enjoy instability; they view firm conviction as a form of slavery that restricts free will – both in thought and in action. Although philosophical schools of this kind (such as the sceptics) have long disappeared, we still find airheads among us with similar instincts – even if the passion that once flowed in the veins of their spiritual ancestors no longer flows in theirs. But the lie is not popular merely because those who speak the truth often encounter difficulties, hostility, and suffering, nor only because of the moral responsibility that truth demands. The allure of the lie has deeper roots, it stems from a natural, though corrupted, love for the lie itself.
When members of the later Greek school – the so-called New Academy (sceptics) – reflected on this tendency, they stumbled upon a difficult question: Why do people love lies even when they bring no profit (like they do to merchants) and no pleasure (like they do to poets) – but simply because they are lies? This is what Sir Francis Bacon of Verulam wrote in 1625 in his Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral. Though by some standards he may not have been a paragon of morality (judging by his biography), he was an important and influential thinker in his time, one still worth listening to today. With his essay on truth, he prophetically raised questions that would fully come to light only centuries later – among them, the question of the nature of socialism as a life built on lies. This system, though unknown to him, he indirectly exposed through his reflections on the relationship between truth and falsehood.
Even more sharply, the essence of this phenomenon was captured in the 1970s by Leszek Kołakowski, one of the fiercest critics of Marxist thought, with a striking and condensed observation: “The lie is the immortal soul of communism.”
His words remain ominously relevant today. The domestic successors of the Communist Party – present in all three ruling coalition parties and in numerous non-governmental organisations that act as their militant arms – proudly continue the tradition of living in falsehood. They repeat the mantra of Marxism, communism, or socialism: “Tomorrow will be better; we are leading you into a bright future.”
But what can we expect from a Prime Minister who, before the elections, told only one truth – that he would raise taxes? All his other predictions were either outright lies or subtle manipulations. Even today, as he holds the highest office in the country, truth does not suit him. The only promises he has (at least partially) fulfilled are those related to political purges: “to cleanse RTV Slovenia and the police of Janšists.” In this area, he has been effective. But he has been even more effective at creating and spreading lies – so many, in fact, that they cannot be listed, let alone analysed, in a single column. Sadly, but truly, the lie has gained citizenship in Slovenia.
Why do socialists of all kinds so often lie, manipulate, or distort the truth? Even when they speak the truth, they frequently twist and reshape it to serve their goals. The Renaissance thinker Montaigne once wrote: “If we consider it well, to say that a man lies is to say he is brave before God and cowardly before men.” Bacon added: “A lie faces God and hides from man.”
And herein lies the key to understanding modern socialist rhetoric: socialists fear the people. They fear the moment when the people will finally realise that the emperor has no clothes. The slogan of the French Revolution “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (Liberty, equality, fraternity) in their hands has become merely a tool for seizing and maintaining power. Manipulations of all kinds and empty promises of a better tomorrow are just a smoke screen that hides the path to ruin.
As another great thinker, Friedrich August von Hayek, observed:
“Socialism is the road to serfdom.”