Henry David Thoreau said
\n\u201cRather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth\u201d.
\nWhy did Thoreau prefer truth to all else?
\nDoes not money deserve to be worshiped?
\nDoes not fame deserve to be worshiped?
\nDoes not power deserve to be worshiped?
\nI think that I agree with Thoreau,
\nExcept, that I might sometimes prefer love to truth.<\/p>\n
But to me, power seems ugly,
\nBecause power means coercion.
\nIt means making another person do something
\nBy force or by threats.
\nThe power of armies is ugly.
\nThe power of governments is often ugly,
\nWhen they are not guided by ethics,
\nWhen they are not guided by truth.<\/p>\n
A good friend said to me,
\n\u201cWhat power do NGO’s have?\u201d
\nI answered. \u201cNo power at all
\nThey only have truth.
\nAnd NGO’s must criticize governments,
\nWhen they are not guided by compassion,
\nWhen they are not guided by ethics
\nWhen they are not guided by truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good friend said to me,
\n\u201cIs not truth often painful?\u201d
\nI answered \u201cYes it is often painful,
\nBut pain can be our friend,
\nPain tells us to withdraw our hand
\nSo that a fire will not burn it.
\nPain tells us to withdraw our folly,
\nSo that our beautiful world will not burn.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good friend said to me,
\n\u201cBelieve this and you will be happy,
\nBelieve this or you will suffer,
\nBelieve this or you will be punished\u201d
\nI answered, \u201cWhere is the evidence?
\nI answered, \u201cWhere is the logic?
\nIf there is good evidence and logic,
\nThen I will believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good friend said to me,
\n\u201cBelieve this because everyone believes it\u201d
\nI answered \u201cI am myself.
\nI have my own truth.
\nCrowds often have been wrong.
\nMultitudes have rushed down false paths.
\nI will not follow them.
\nI will be guided by compassion and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good friend said to me,
\n\u201cYou are standing alone.
\nYou are only one person.
\nYou have so little power!\u201d
\nI answered, \u201cI am not alone.
\nMany people can see the truth,
\nTogether we can change the world.
\nIn the end, truth and love will win\u201d
\n________________________________<\/p>\n
John Scales Avery, Ph.D. is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. \u00d8rsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. H<\/em>e is chairman of both the Danish National Pugwash Group and the Danish Peace Academy and received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. His most recent book is <\/em><\/i>http:\/\/www.learndev.org\/dl\/Crisis21-Avery.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Henry David Thoreau said
\n\u201cRather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth\u201d.
\nWhy did Thoreau prefer truth to all else?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}