Brainwashed or truth-fed?

WE need to learn to distinguish between the two and to

make the proper choice. Nowadays, with all the noise and constant

barrage of ideas, words, views, opinions, doctrines, etc., we get the

impression that we do not know anymore whether we are being

brainwashed or are really fed and nourished by the truth, and

everything that truth brings with it—charity, fairness, justice,

peace, joy, order…

   

            In the social media that includes not only written words

but also videos, we get to see fierce exchanges from different parties

with all sorts of ideologies and cultures and religions. Of course, we

strive to live in a democratic world where tolerance and diversity are

fostered, but we can wonder if we are actually fed by the truth or are

simply indoctrinated, conditioned and mind-controlled.

  

            I am reminded of what St. Paul once said. “For the time

will come,” he said, “when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a

great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

(2 Tim 4,3)

   

            In other words, many people nowadays are not anymore

interested in really knowing and, much less, living the objective

universal truth about the world and us. They are more interested in

pursuing what they want to the extent that they now try to impose

their ideas and biases on others. There seems to be a systematic way

of brainwashing people.

  

            That is why there is so much nitpicking and fault-finding,

so much casuistic and polemical argumentation in the discussions. A

toxic atmosphere of contentiousness is generated where intrigues,

discord and division are sowed.

  

            This is not anymore happening solely in the world of

politics and business where a certain diversity of positions and

opinions is legitimate. It is now also happening in the world of faith

and beliefs where truths that are supposed to be objective and

universal are meant to keep us in unity, though not necessarily in

uniformity.

  

            The secret of knowing how to distinguish and of properly

choosing between being brainwashed and being truth-fed is simply by

being truly with God. After all, God is the Creator of the whole

universe. He is the author of reality in all its aspects, material

spiritual, natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal, etc.

  

            With him we can discern the truth that always goes

together with charity and all its complementary virtues. Let’s

remember that charity is the mother virtue, the one that gives all the

other virtues their true character as virtues.

   

            The truth in charity is also the one that will last

forever, that will bring us to our eternal destination with God in

heaven. It is what fully satisfies our dignity as image and likeness

of God, children of his.

  

            We need to be in vital union with God, something that is

always possible since God always makes himself available to us, in

order to be in the truth that goes together with charity. Otherwise,

there is no other way but to be brainwashed by certain false

ideologies and unsound doctrine.

  

            As St. Paul would put it, with God “we may be no longer

children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of

doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of

error...” (Eph 4,14) We need to dominate the world of public opinion,

not dominated by it. We need to be its master, not its slave.