The Era of Martyrs

A difficult debate: Are you willing to give your life for thruth?

While scrolling through all the publishing around the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the most hailed conservative influencer of the US, I found Katherine Boyle in a podcast of Bari Weiss, editor in chief of The Free Press. „We are entering an era of the martyr“, Katherine Boyle, Board member of the online publication, said, and it made me shiver to contemplate the possible implications of that statement.

Since then, I can’t stop thinking about how Charlie Kirk’s murder was the 9/11 of free speech, planned to silence conservatism, favorably forever. A murder committed from a 22 year old against a 31 year old. Celebrated in the media and on the streets like during the worst times of the Roman Empire where the opposition was just thrown into arenas and fed to the lions. 

Germany, the country where I was born, being one of the leading forces of disgrace, again.

It was that moment when Charlie Kirk broke down onstage, bleeding out in front of the crowd that finally brought to our collective consciousness that ACTING HUMAN has died. The gaping hole he left has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with our own integrity, one person at a time.

We’ve all witnessed that long painful process and how it happened that truth died, in so many ways.

Cancer experts say, it is a multifaceted event, and then there is that tipping point that causes the immune system to collapse. 

The rise of before unthinkable violations of free speech at the beginning of the pandemic were already the precursors of Dante’s hell. A psychosis of the masses, psychosis being compared to a cancer break out of the soul. 

The fight for survival of opinions started to go rampant – a moment which Charlie Kirk assigned to the year of 2020 in an interview with clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson, only four months ago. Wokism started its tidal wave around the world, the critical race theory and „gender affirming care“ being symptoms of such aggressive demeanor, that death at the end of that spectrum finally seemed inevitable, no matter the political preference.

As a young man, Charlie Kirk traveled to Toronto to hear Jordan Peterson, whom he admired, speak

For the sake of our soul's health

And here we are. We are entering the era of the martyr. 

What does that mean on an individual level? „I don’t want to die“, was my first thought. And my second was: Would I be willing to die for the truth as I perceive it… at least in a metaphorical sense? Would I be willing to be absolute truthful to myself, to my best knowledge? Would I dare to expect of my family, friends, in terms of my political opinion, in business, under any circumstances? Would I be willing to gun down all of these little white lies that bolster my addiction to harmony? Could I trust life enough that if old friends might leave, new ones will turn up and relate to the person I actually am… stripped naked of my convenient excuses? Would you?

We know what we get with all our little lies because we are standing right now, in our actual circumstances, at the end of that rope.

Fact is: We will never know in advance what we’ll get on the other side of an uncomfortable truth, expressed with all due respect to someone else who may be on the other side of the spectrum. It might be a bullet in your neck, as with Charlie Kirk, or "only" into your soul, dignity or professional existence. „I am so happy in my life“, Kirk said, when Peterson asked him, what was in for him in the future, „I want to continue bringing debate to universities, crack open what’s going on there right now.“ 

He was 31, with a beautiful wife and two small adorable kids and his pockets full of money and 7.6 million followers on social media. When you are a 31 year old young man, a very straight conservative, a devout Christian and Trump loves you, you think you are invincible; that noone can or will stop you in your tracks. That life will surrender. Until it doesn't and God has, in anticipation of what’s in there for you in another sphere of being, some new plans for you.

WHAT'S WORTH LIVING FOR?

„Truth has its price“, Jordan Peterson says, „and so do lies. Choose your battles wisely.“ For your own sake and health, lying to yourself is definitely eating you up from the inside out. But not lying to yourself isn't a ticket to survival either. When Charlie Kirk chose his battle, he was probably not aware of the price he was about to pay for speaking his mind and searching debate on campuses behind his folded table with as much of an open heart as he possibly could. 

We all are not, no matter who we voted or cheered for in our private or public life. The only weapon we have against what’s coming towards us is our integrity. Meaning: Being truthful to ourselves and others without any guarantee that the person on the other side might like us or if we are actually right. We don’t know where truth as we see it will lead us. But what we definitely know is that lies don’t lead us anywhere. Sooner or later, we will fall into our own trap. With lies, we have left ourselves on our road to perdition. So my conclusion is that being a martyr for truth is the better choice since we are martyrs anyway on both sides by sacrificing ourselves, either way. Hoping that we don’t get shot.