12/05/2026
Silence Gets Rewarded and Honesty Gets Punished
Most people remain on the sidelines, huddled together, simply being spectators as the parade of life passes by. The parade of life is always the struggle between honesty and lies, between keeping quiet or taking action. As the parade of life marches most people opted to become quiet, opted to look at the other way. And why is it that people choose to be quiet and silent? Because if we are quiet, if we do not speak up, we are rewarded with acceptance, with approval and protection, with a sense of belongingness. If we are quiet and silent when evil is gaining over goodness we are not hassled.
On the other hand should we choose to be honest, to be a person of integrity, to stand up against lies and speak against injustice, corruption, dishonesty, we will be punished, pilloried, labelled as being difficult, accused of being disruptive and disrespectful by those in authority. Rock the boat and we will find ourselves walking the plank and thrown overboard. Stand up for honesty, for the truth and suddenly you get persecuted and suffer the indignity of being shamed and labeled. To be truthfully honest in a world so comfortable with lies and dishonesty is to find ourselves in scaldingly hot waters. To be truly honest is to be isolated. As Billy Joel sang in his song, “honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue.” Why is honesty a difficult trait? It is because it threatens whatever is being protected by everyone pretending not to see. Honesty as a personal trait is a burden too heavy to carry because it challenges the lies of established order and institutions. They have so much skeletons in the closet that they do not want exposed because honesty destroys the illusion that many people enjoy hence honesty is labelled as disruptive.
People throughout history who live a life of integrity and honesty suffered for their raw honesty. It cost them comfort, favours, positions and even suffered terribly for it. Being too honest is always frowned upon even by institutional religions who were suppose to uphold integrity and honesty. “Just stay quiet” or “turn your eyes away from the problem” or “just cooperate” and they promise to take care of you. If they agree not to identify the problem, the corruption they will be rewarded. Some decent people agree not to speak up not because they have no values but they are tired from upholding the truth. Or their family is threatened. The price of being honest is too steep for them to defend honesty. People maintain their silence because they see what happens to people who speak up. The price of honesty is too high for their survival. And so most people are simply on the sidelines watching those few people who have the courage to challenge the lies of established orders.
Keep your head down, speak in soft whispers, avoid naming who is the problem and what is the problem, what is causing the problem and suddenly you find yourself rewarded. Life becomes manageable and comfortable. We are left alone, no bullying, no targeting, no sequestration of properties.
This is how false peace is built; under the threatening shadow of fear, under false promises of prosperity, under the thick shadow of lie. Pretence peace happens not in agreement with the truth but through the punishment of truth tellers. It was thus with all the prophets, both old and new. This false peace happens everywhere, in families, workplaces, communities, in government and in churches as well. Appearance matters more than integrity, more than honesty because honesty is a direct assault on the facade of all these established institutions. The message is always clear, do not say much if you want to feel safe, secured and acceptance. Never go against the narrative of the script. Never mess up with party line policies. Once you do that, you will be thrown out. They never liked the boat to be rocked.
If you want to be part of the group dilute your truth, your honesty, and tone down your integrity. But a diluted truth, a compromised integrity will be to lie. And few people will never agree to a diluted truth, a compromised integrity. Society wants a truth that can easily be swallowed but that is not what truth is. A watered down truth is no truth at all.
People with high level of integrity know this. The soul knows the difference. That is why people who wouldn’t compromise get exhausted and tired because the burden of carrying the truth is a gargantuan responsibility. They cannot compromise the person that they are. In a world where performative act is more valued and admired, bold honesty is always seen as oddity and oddity is always silenced, punished, persecuted.
Comfort is a powerful drug. Security assures people that if you do not rock the boat or yank the heavy chains of deception and lies, you will be treated well. But once you speak out, once you criticised, once you point out the errors in the systems, in the rules and regulations then you are a marked person ready to be shot, ready to be pilloried, ready to be demolished. Snowden and Assange are classic examples of revealing corruption in the governments and they paid a heavy price. Alexi Navalny paid the ultimate sacrifice of being silenced forever.
Why is honesty a difficult trait to have? Because it forces people to confront what needs to be confronted. It forces people to see reality and quite too often reality is not pleasant. It challenges convenience, comfort and illusions that we were brought up to believe. Truth reveals what was hidden from us and brought into the light and then we are forced to make choices and people are afraid to make that choice.
Between honesty and lies, many if not most people will seek to live with comfortable lies because lies are soothing and not scary at all. It wears a beautiful mask. Truth on the other hand is intense, raw and intimidating. But while truth is a very difficult pill to swallow it brings ultimate peace in one’s heart knowing they have done the right thing and they can live peacefully with themselves. Whereas lies, once the mask is stripped off reveals the ugliness of deception and what a bitter pill it is to swallow that we have been deceived.
