“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

– Winston Churchill

We are trained from an early age to trust authority. Of course, in a liberal democracy, that doesn’t mean your father and mother or pastor/priest. You are to trust the words coming out of the mouths of politicians, academics, journalists, and pundits. The failure to recognize how trusting the latter group over the former is rarely considered. There comes a point when the latter will even teach you to be suspicious of the former. We are beyond that juncture.

“Ukraine is winning.” “Mass immigration is good for the economy,” and “yes, some girls do have penises.” These are examples of where we are now. My maternal grandfather was an uneducated man, but he possessed the ability to examine those three statements and dismiss them without research, all but the first. Maybe it’s because he didn’t finish high school and didn’t go to college that he would be able to see through these lies and offer you the back of his hand if you tried to convince him otherwise.

Most people will read the Churchill quote above and either dismiss it due to their indoctrination or because they don’t recognize that war isn’t only killing people and blowing stuff up. It’s also about lines on a map. More importantly, it’s about lines in the sand. What you aren’t willing to cross but also what you’re not willing to let others violate. If you look around, it’s easy to see that most people no longer have “lines in the sand” they are willing to defend. Most aren’t even willing to defend the truth. There’s no guarantee—very little, in fact—that millions of people drawing lines in the sand would have an impact on the regime in charge in any direct way. It may signal to those who have the power, will, and wealth—a new elite—that we are ready for a new Spirit that guides our way. Maybe, just maybe, millions of “lines in the sand” will lead to the kind of divide that is needed for people to abandon entertaining lies—even ones that may make us comfortable when we feel all hope is lost.