The Strategy of Truth

There is an old word often used to describe the means by which men pursue their purposes. The word is “strategy.” We hear of the strategy of arriving at all manner of objectives ⎯ sometimes by deception. But the most effective strategy is “the strategy of truth,” and there is no other strategy that can consistently withstand it. The strategy of falsehood, so widely used in the world, has one great weakness which always ultimately causes its collapse. Its fatal weakness is that every falsehood must continually be explained by other falsehoods. If any man or any group of men set about to establish one lie they must quickly fabricate other lies to support it, and more and more lies insatiably demand more and more lies; and soon the whole pattern becomes so complex that discrepancies appear faster than explanations can be made, and the whole false fabric falls with its own weight. With all of the confusion of purpose and counter purpose and of opinion and counter opinion that there is, the question is often asked, “What can we believe?” There is only one answer: the only thing we can believe is truth. No generation of people can afford to believe anything which does not check with all of the confirmed facts and figures, and with all of the laws and realities of the universe ⎯ and any man or any generation of men who want to protect themselves against ultimate breakdown must lay their plans upon the strategy of truth. There never was and never will be any man or any combination of men smart enough to support any falsehood permanently, no matter how well conceived the strategy or how ingeniously falsehood is supported with further falsehood. The strategy of truth is the only strategy that may be permanently built upon. And for safety and strength, for peace and progress, and for salvation itself, men must demand and expect, receive and accept truth ⎯ and be ever prepared to face facts. There is no safety or assurance in any other direction.