I can’t recall being more worried about the state of our world and the state of our nation than I am right now.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the West’s response to it (the U.S. and NATO) continues to escalate, with not only no end in sight but, from my perspective, no credible exit in sight. Putin is feeling increasingly “cornered”. There is no telling what he might do in order to avoid humbling defeat.The words we are employing aren’t helping. Secretary of Defense Austin declaring it our ‘intent” to degrade Russia’s military and a thinly disguised commitment to regime change. In truth, I believe this is the only path to a better future for Russia and a lasting peace for the world but our insisting on it publicly isn’t going to help achieve that outcome; it plays into Putin's hands.
I wrack my brain for a “peace settlement” now that both Ukraine and Russia could sign on to. I can’t imagine Ukraine agreeing to cede any new territory (apart from Crimea) to Russia, and it’s hard to imagine Russia agreeing to anything not involving some added territory.
In our own country, and in the world for that matter, I’m most troubled by the utter disrespect for truth. The willingness to lie flagrantly and get away with it. Kevin McCarthy, who aspires to be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, denies making the statement that he felt Trump should resign after January 6, only to have a tape of his voice saying exactly that appear the next day. With all of that, he appears before the Republican Caucus and gets a standing ovation.
Putin tells lie after lie to the Russian public and, for still a majority, his words are believed.
I’ve sometimes been asked: “What is the most important thing you took away from college?” My answer, starting over half century ago to this very day, is: “The respect I gained for seeking truth and the importance of being open to new learning to determine what truth is.”
When I’m asked what it is that led me to stay at Procter & Gamble rather than going to law school after my first year, which is what I anticipated, the reasons I give always include, “It was my discovery that the search for truth in P&G was what I had experienced and loved at Yale.” Yes, the search for truth.
Twenty-three years ago, I went to the Miami University campus to give a talk to the students. Its title was: “Does character count?” When that topic had first been suggested to me, I dismissed it, saying the answer to this question was too obvious to merit a full-blown talk. The faculty member I was talking to told me I was wrong. It was a very live question in students’ minds. He wanted me to address it. And so I did.
I began my talk with these four words: ‘Without character, nothing counts.’”
I continued: “What is character? I don’t know if there is a final answer,” I said. “But for me character expresses integrity: ‘Being as one.’ ‘Being as one’ in the sense of being faithful in action to your most important core values, to your promises, to your words.’ ‘Being as one’ in saying what you mean and meaning what you say and of being faithful to other people, especially when they are not present.”
I went on: “Integrity manifests itself in a quality I’ve come to appreciate more and more: ‘Authenticity.’ I love to hear it said of someone: ‘What you see is what you get.’ No matter where this person is, no matter whom they are talking to, no matter whom they are talking with, they are the same, because they are just being themselves.”
This kind of integrity, this commitment to truth as best we know it, this is the predicate for a functioning democracy, for a functioning company, for a functioning family, for a functioning relationship of any kind.
I recall the chilling words of Goebbels during the Nazi era. In so many words, "If you keep telling people a lie, again and again, many will come to believe it".
George Orwell in his all too prescient book, "Animal Farm", writes this: "Totalitarianism demands..the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run demands a disbelief in the very existence of truth".
In times past, I believe there would have been broad, if not totally universal agreement to the commitment to truth even as we recognized our imperfection in carrying out this mandate.
What worries, indeed what scares me today, is that this commitment to integrity, to telling the truth, is up for grabs. It has being flagrantly abused and the abusers are getting away with it. This is true in our country; it’s true globally.
With all this cause for deep concern, there are rays of hope and inspiration. We see Liz Cheney standing up to her Republican party's continued allegiance to Donald Trump and his outright lies. Above all, we see the Ukrainian people and their President Volodymyr Zelensky pursue truth—freedom—at the risk and sacrifice of their lives.
No matter which way the winds are blowing, we have only one choice. Do what we believe is right. Continue to pursue truth as we can best understand it.
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