Civilization Means Power Used in Service to the Public

We serve by speaking truth, abiding by our agreements, seeing ourselves in others.

So how can free people coordinate with each other without indulging in self-deception? Can we embrace the truth that is the pre-requisite to a workable life? On the national level, the best method we've found has been constitutionalism.

It is the awakening to a truth that is timeless even as it plays out in the history of our lives.

The dedication to truth brings us beyond the projection and exporting of blame to others, as, however blameworthy others may be, we only find the freedom to do better from within.

Truth is only the truth of power, and this infects all their interactions.

They are sophists - the goal of communication is to persuade others, not to pursue truth together.

The statement "The laptop bears all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation" was meant to conceal rather than to reveal the truth about the laptop, because the truth would have weakened the chances of these government officials to retain power.

Though such parsing is clearly deceptive, at least it contains the hypocrite's implicit nod to truth; as Kesey once said, "At least hypocrites acknowledge that truth exists. Today, we don't even bother to be hypocrites." And so eventually, it devolves to straightforward lying.

In the place of universal principles, divine law, to which all are accountable, such wielders of governmental power hold themselves answerable to no one and nothing.

Churchill might then say: You may have power, but you will no longer have civilization.

We serve by speaking truth, abiding by our agreements, seeing ourselves in others, and so grounding patterns of reciprocal altruism in the core of our character. 

https://spectator.org/civilization-means-power-used-in-service-to-the-public/