Not Through Me. Not Through Me.

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1:41Not through me. Not through me. We don't control what other people do. We don't control that they lie. We don't control that they abuse power. We don't control that they cheat on their spouses. We don't control that they attack or persecute. We don't control that they spread misinformation. But we certainly control whether we do those things, or rather that we don't do those things. Alexander Solzhenitsyn lived through terrible tyranny, and he refused to let it corrupt him. He knew that it was impossible for an individual to fight against pervasive evil and corruption. But still, he said, our duty was simple.

2:15Our credo must be, let the lie come into the world, he said, let it even triumph, but not through me. This is Cato during the last days of the Republic. This is Rutilius and Musonius and Agrippinus as they face down the power of the state. This is Stockdale in the Hanoi Hilton. It can also be us in this moment, whatever the future holds. We must resist the moral inversion that celebrates selfishness and rewards dishonesty. We must resist the cultural forces that encourage cruelty, that degrade truth. We must stand firm, unyielding in our refusal to compromise on what we know is right. We do this personally by insisting on what's right, by acting right, by living with virtues.

2:58Others will do what they will. We will not.

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