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The Cost of Lies
“What is the cost of lies?” This is one of the key concerns in the five-part 2019 miniseries Chernobyl. Some may remember the nuclear accident that occurred on Russian soil in 1986. If you have not seen the program, I highly recommend it as a universal, human warning. The story is told, much like Apollo 13: we already know the ending. But the narrative is so well told, it deserves its 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The viewer feels every character’s emotion.
Yet, the case of Chernobyl is not simply about a nuclear accident – as horrendous as that event was for the people who lived it. If I were to summarize the miniseries, I could do so in one word: lies. For those who know something of the old USSR or Soviet Union, you may remember that this was one of many totalitarian regimes during the 20th century. Like all dictatorial rule, those at the top want to keep everyone in line. Everything is controlled, even words. And the words used by the managers of the Communist regime were lies, lies to deceive, lies to cover up, lies to control.
Toward the end of the last episode, the main character, one of the key figures involved in the actual events, says this about his country,
“Our lies are practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie, and lie, until we can no longer remember truth is even there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
When I spoke earlier about a “universal human warning,” I was not speaking of nuclear power. I was speaking of the power of telling the truth, standing against lies. Every individual, every people group, everywhere, will at some point confront the cost of telling the truth. At Chernobyl, the cost can be counted in human lives. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking and telling the truth, wherever it’s found.
First published at MarkEckel.com.
Published in General
I admired the writers for making this point clear from the very first episode, when the old, grandfatherly party official comes and talks to the gathered officials and administrators, telling them lies and telling them to repeat lies. Naked, destructive lies. For an audience conditioned to expect the character to most likely be a fount of wisdom and sanity in the situation, it was like a right cross to the face. Very well done.
The series was very good. I really felt for the fire fighters rushing in to douse meltdown while getting a lethal exposure to radiation. I think the phrase “Russian soil” is not accurate. The USSR is not exactly the same as Russia.
Ukraine IIRC.
I constantly thought of this example when the WHO kept repeating the CCP’s propaganda about covid. Oh yeah, they are totally believable.
It was a good series.
It’s interesting to apply this lesson to our own culture and government. We swim in a sea of lies, I think. The lies of critical race theory, the lies of feminism, the lies of the homosexual advocates, the lies of the trans-madness, the lies about foreign policy and American aggression overseas, the lies about multiculturalism. It just goes on and on.
A great series on many levels.
A great scene toward the end of the series is that featuring Boris (the bureaucrat) and Valery (the scientist) talking about everything that happened. Boris admits that at first he didn’t believe it was an important matter, as he is a man of no consequence. Valery responds that what Boris did in the aftermath of the nuclear accident was of great consequence.
It’s a brilliant dramatic scene, while also showing the debt paid to truth. At this point in the story both men know that their lives will be cut short from their exposure to radiation. They are nonetheless consoled that they averted an even greater disaster.