Senior columnist Caleb Eldridge shares his insight into leadership, faith and the many complexities of teens today. This column is a continuation of his junior year leadership column in which he hopes to encourage and provoke deeper thought into today’s current issues.
Truth is a necessity; in fact, it is foundational in our lives. Without truth, there is no standard for what is right or wrong. But what if we lived in a society that was only lies? I hate to say it, but we might be closer to living in that world than ever before.
Now I should preface this with saying that I don’t believe this is happening due to social media. This absence of truth has actually been going on for a while – long before social media was even a thought. We can track the absence of truth to the beginning of sin in the book of Genesis.
The beginning of sin, also known as The Fall in Genesis 3, begins with the description of how cunning and crafty the serpent was. This quickly establishes the power of lies. Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, a paradise where the only rule is not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God tells them that if they eat the fruit, they will die. The serpent tells Adam and Eve that God lied to them; they would not die if they ate the fruit and would even become like God.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally killed by the serpent’s lies. Even though they were not killed at that moment, they would eventually die. They were separated from God and separated from truth, because God is truth. Without God, there is no life, only death.
George Orwell’s book, “1984,” serves as an amazing historical example of the need for truth. In 1984, people live under the regime of The Party, the all-powerful totalitarian rulers who control everything in the superstate of Oceania, which controls all of North and South America, the British Isles, Southern Africa and some of Australasia (all of Australia and some of Asia). The Party has the power to rewrite history, decide what’s real and fake and regulate what is seen as right and wrong.
Winston Smith, the main character in the book, works in the records department of (ironically) The Ministry of Truth, which means his job is rewriting the information within Oceania. The story’s main conflict is caused by Winston’s hatred of The Party; he keeps a diary in which he writes all of his rebellious thoughts against The Party. This is committing one of the greatest crimes in Oceania, “Thoughtcrime,” which is the act of having a different belief or thought than The Party. I won’t spoil how the story ends, but I will say this: Winston’s thoughts were about the truth – the real truth – against the Party and their regime, control of reality and control of truth, and for that, he was punished. Sometimes the truth requires sacrifice of self.
A current example is in the movie “Superman,” which came out in July 2025. In this movie, Superman is sent away by his parents after his home planet of Krypton is destroyed. Superman’s parents provided him with a message about how much they love him and why they sent him to this new world of Earth; however, the message is damaged when Superman is sent to Earth, and he can only hear the first half, how much they love him.
Superman believes that his parents sent him in order to help the people of Earth, and so that is his main reason for helping others, for being Superman. At some point in the movie, the villain, Lex Luthor, pieces the message back together and discovers that Superman’s parents did not send him to Earth to protect people, but instead to rule over Earth and create a new Krypton. When this message is revealed, Superman is distraught because this destroys the foundational belief that shaped his identity as Superman.
Superman acted on what he believed to be true: that his parents sent him to Earth to save people. When it all turned out to be a lie, when he learned his parents sent him to conquer Earth, he went above his perceived purpose. Superman accepts the truth that his parents had a different plan for him, and instead creates a new truth based on his morality. He wants to save the people of Earth because he knows it is the right thing to do. Sometimes the truth can hurt, but accepting the truth can make you stronger.
Our thoughts need to be based in truth. According to a study done by Stanford University, we have around 60,000 thoughts per day (However, there are many other studies that have gone into this, some say 60,000, others say 70,000). That is an insane number of ideas going through your head all day. What’s even more surprising is that 80% of those thoughts are negative. This means that around 45,000 thoughts we have a day are negative. That is an obscene amount of negativity going through our minds all at once.
According to Prof. Luskin, we have over 60,000 thoughts a day with 90% being repetitive – how to change and find peace: http://t.co/81qGbKdT
— Stanford University (@Stanford) April 5, 2012
To sum it all up, we need to think about truth because “truth sets you free.” That phrase originates from John 8:32, but has been used in many other places. It’s on a wall in the headquarters of the CIA, used in the musical series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as a song (The Truth Will Make Me Free), and used in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘s speech to Grosse Pointe High School. Thinking about truth sets you free from the negativity of the world, and that will set you apart from this world.
Separation from truth results in death, just as Adam and Eve experienced. Know that to spread the truth and understand the truth might require the sacrifice of yourself, like Winston Smith in “1984.” When that truth hurts, recognize that accepting the truth makes you stronger, like Superman.
Think about the truth, because the truth sets you free. And above all else, act out the truth. These actions will fight against lies, against the absence of truth, against negativity and create a reality that is full of people acting in truth.
“The more a society drifts away from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
-Attributed to George Orwell
To read more from The Feather, visit Look Up, Superman Movie Takes World by Storm and Central Valley community commemorates September 11.
Ethan Klassen • Sep 20, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Fantastic article Caleb!