Reflecting about news reports around the world this past week, I was thinking about “truth.” Two historic quotations came to mind. The first, from the American writer William Faulkner (1897- 1962): “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.”

The second, from Hannah Arendt (1906 – 1975), the German historian and philosopher, who became interested in how the most outrageous lies get a political hold over people, ever since Nazi lies about the Jews and intellectuals drove her from Berlin in 1933 after her arrest by the Gestapo. 

Hannah Arendt wrote: “This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such people, deprived of the power to think and judge, are, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such people, you can do whatever you want.”

When people lose the ability to be critical observers and critical thinkers, they become unable to distinguish between facts and falsehoods. They can no longer recognize “the big lie.”

“The big lie” is a great distortion of truth. It was the propaganda technique, coined by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in his 1925 book Mein Kampf. There he wrote: “The great masses of the people… will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”

Hitler stressed that if a known falsehood was repeated regularly and treated as true, “the big lie” would be taken for granted and no longer questioned.

Confronting today’s “big lies,” we all need to exercise critical thinking skills: observing and asking critical questions. What is the source of the information? Is it a reliable source? People who spread fake news and “alternative facts” sometimes create web pages, newspaper stories, or AI-generated images that look official, but are not.

I very much believe the old Latin proverb Veritas Vincit (“Truth Prevails”). But it can only happen if we all work together.

What sources of news can one trust? A credible news report will include a variety of facts, quotes from bonafide experts, official statistics, or detailed and corroborated eye-witness accounts from people on the scene. If these are missing, one should question the report’s truth and accuracy. Does the evidence prove that something definitely happened? Or, have the facts been selected or “twisted” to back up a particular fabricated viewpoint?

As a good friend observed this past week: “Now, as a major diplomatic situation unfolds, Brian Burch, the American ambassador to the Vatican, has chosen to ignore Pope Leo’s public declaration that the sovereignty of Venezuela must be restored and respected. Instead, he asserts that the Catholic Church and the United States are ‘on the same page’ regarding America’s invasion of Venezuela.”

Ultimately, people will come to the realization that denying the truth doesn’t change the facts. But sometimes the process goes painfully slow.

I often think about the observation of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), the Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”

• Jack