So I recently began reading - or rather, listening (read by the author by the way!) - to Jordan B. Peterson's 2 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. And, if you - my dear reader - are a fan of Peterson, then this is a must-read.

One of the rules of those 12, that I relate with, is called "tell the truth".

Now, it goes much deeper than one might assume at first glance. Essentially what Peterson means, is that you have to do what needs to be done. E.g., if you know you have to speak up - but don't - you're not telling the truth. You're lying.

Indeed, that's lying, because you're pretending that everything's just fine. From the outside, it seems you agree, but internally you don't. That's not being honest.

Did you hear about Will Smith walking up to Chris Rock and slapping him right on stage? Well, that's a prime example of Will doing what needed to be done. Now, this is subjectively speaking. I doubt anyone knows what was the "right" thing to do at that moment - if such a thing even exists. But, for Will, this is what he felt needed to be done, and did it. He told the truth!

And I'm on Will Smith's side here. If you don't draw a line and allow yourself to be (publicly) humiliated, then you're not speaking up - and if you're not speaking up, you're a liar.

This brings us to the thing I wanted to talk about.

Namely, what will happen if you don't tell the truth. What happens if you don't say what you think and just let things slide so to speak.

You go to hell. Pretty much that.

Of course, not a literal hell, but to hell in your mind.

I'm sure everyone who's able to read this, knows exactly what hell can be like. Sure, most of us haven't been to real hell, but we've all had a taste of it - some more, some less.

Peterson says that this is how totalitarian systems are created. People are indecisive af, they don't speak up and just let things happen to them. And guess what, things will happen to you if you let it. And not the things you want - but what somebody else wants - which probably will not align with your wants.

The people living under dictators are paying the price for not telling the truth. If the concentration camps, mass murders, purges, and deportations we've learned about from history, are not hell, then I don't know what is.

There's an excellent Swedish movie called "The Square" which brilliantly depicts the way things can escalate in an environment of political correctness. What does "not speaking up" look like and how an entire country might be run over ruthlessly without anyone even realizing it. In fact, how subtly and quietly it can happen.

Everyone is free to let their imagination run about what would've happened if Ukraine hadn't stood up to the aggressor.

Do what needs to be done, and always stand up to oppression.

K.