Interesting read. With the moral vaccum of today's Zeitgeist, Benedict was ahead of his time. I am happy to see Leo picking up that "cross" (couldn't resist that analogy). Relativism will only get you so far. The truth eventually makes itself apparent. And with journalism, factual reports are essential. With out facts we are at the mercy of Trump's, Putin, Orban, MBS etc.
outstanding It is no wonder that the likes of of Trump and his allies thrive in a media environment where the Press feels compelled to to present two sides to every issue when the truth isreally only onone side
Readers may be interested in some thinking from M. Scott Peck, author of “People of the Lie.”
Peck fused clinical observation with moral and spiritual reflection to examine how individuals and groups relate to reality.
Central to his thought is the claim that psychological maturity depends on discipline, honesty, and the willingness to face painful facts. Equally central is his portrait of a corrosive form of human destructiveness—“evil,” as he called it—marked not merely by wrongdoing but by a systematic refusal to acknowledge one’s faults and an ongoing defense of a preferred self‑narrative.
Peck’s work helps us think about a broader phenomenon: people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, between true and false, has collapsed — those for whom the truth unravels.
Peck treats truthfulness as a character practice.
In The Road Less Traveled, the imperative to accept reality—“life is difficult”—is ethical and therapeutic.
People of the Lie extends this into an account of those who willfully distort facts to avoid responsibility: they project blame, scapegoat others, and cultivate an impermeable self‑image that requires constant defense.
Such people often appear outwardly respectable, precisely to conceal inner corruption.
For Peck, the refusal to let facts penetrate conscience is not merely cognitive error; it is a moral failing with social consequences.
Modern psychology and neuroscience illuminate multiple routes by which the boundary between fact and fiction can erode, some consonant with Peck’s moral diagnosis and others pointing to different causes.
Neurological conditions—frontal‑lobe damage, certain dementias—produce confabulation: sincere, detailed false memories without intent to deceive.
Disorders that impair insight, like anosognosia, leave people genuinely unable to recognize obvious facts about themselves.
Personality pathology and habitual lying (pseudologia fantastica) blur the line when fabrication acquires an internal logic and the teller alternates between deception and belief.
More pervasive still are everyday cognitive mechanisms—motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, identity‑protective cognition—that bend perception to fit emotional or social needs.
Social dynamics compound these processes: echo chambers, groupthink, and institutional rituals can transform individual distortions into collective reality.
These varieties of truth collapse differ in their moral and clinical implications.
Where brain injury produces confabulation, the person lacks culpable awareness and needs protection and rehabilitation.
Where motivated denial or character‑driven deception dominates—Peck’s hallmark—the person is morally responsible and harms others by preventing accountability.
At a larger scale, ideological or institutional untruths corrode public trust, punish whistleblowers, and enable systemic harm.
Why the distinction matters is not merely epistemic.
For Peck, facing facts is the first step toward moral repair. Willful denial perpetuates abuse by directing pain outward—onto spouses, children, subordinates—while cultural and institutional denial undermines the mechanisms that allow societies to correct course.
Clinically, distinguishing incapacity from evasion guides whether to treat, protect, punish, or reconcile.
Practically, interventions must match cause: cognitive rehabilitation and safety for neurological deficits; therapies that build insight, responsibility, and relational capacity for personality and character disorders; systemic reforms—transparent procedures, protections for dissent, and incentives for accountability—for organizations and communities.
Peck’s framing—psychological blended with moral and spiritual language—has its critics. Labeling people “evil” risks moralizing complex phenomena that also have developmental, social, and biological roots.
Clinicians and communities must avoid crude verdicts and attend to the interplay of trauma, neurobiology, and social incentives that produce denial.
Still, Peck’s enduring insight is useful: truth is not only a set of propositions but a practice.
Restoring the distinction between fact and fiction is less an abstract epistemic task than the slow work of cultivating honesty, accountability, and the courage to suffer being wrong.
Whether the collapse of truth stems from brain dysfunction, defensive morality, personality pathology, or social machinery, the remedy lies in combining clinical care, moral engagement, and structural reforms that make it safer—sometimes costly—to tell and hear the truth.
Only by treating truthfulness as a disciplined habit, Peck suggests, can individuals and communities recover the capacity to let facts reshape conscience and conduct.
He's right, this is what is needed.
Viva Papa Leon
Interesting read. With the moral vaccum of today's Zeitgeist, Benedict was ahead of his time. I am happy to see Leo picking up that "cross" (couldn't resist that analogy). Relativism will only get you so far. The truth eventually makes itself apparent. And with journalism, factual reports are essential. With out facts we are at the mercy of Trump's, Putin, Orban, MBS etc.
Media Corporations make the MOST money through fear and chaos.
Once you understand that you know it's never going to get better. It's all about $$$.
Life's biggest challenge is to find inner peace no matter the chaos that surrounds you.
Chaos has always been around us...
It just seems LOUDER these days.
Media now sounds more like the WWE!
And gets probably the same crowd.
Chaos? Think Gaslighting.. Disinformation...
Intimidation.. Fearmongering... Confusion..
Threatening....Cruelty For Profit!
They are Always Promoting that people should No Longer Respect one another.
When you lose respect for everyone...
you have lost respect for yourself.
outstanding It is no wonder that the likes of of Trump and his allies thrive in a media environment where the Press feels compelled to to present two sides to every issue when the truth isreally only onone side
One is for you to see, the other is the truth that cannot be seen
Readers may be interested in some thinking from M. Scott Peck, author of “People of the Lie.”
Peck fused clinical observation with moral and spiritual reflection to examine how individuals and groups relate to reality.
Central to his thought is the claim that psychological maturity depends on discipline, honesty, and the willingness to face painful facts. Equally central is his portrait of a corrosive form of human destructiveness—“evil,” as he called it—marked not merely by wrongdoing but by a systematic refusal to acknowledge one’s faults and an ongoing defense of a preferred self‑narrative.
Peck’s work helps us think about a broader phenomenon: people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, between true and false, has collapsed — those for whom the truth unravels.
Peck treats truthfulness as a character practice.
In The Road Less Traveled, the imperative to accept reality—“life is difficult”—is ethical and therapeutic.
People of the Lie extends this into an account of those who willfully distort facts to avoid responsibility: they project blame, scapegoat others, and cultivate an impermeable self‑image that requires constant defense.
Such people often appear outwardly respectable, precisely to conceal inner corruption.
For Peck, the refusal to let facts penetrate conscience is not merely cognitive error; it is a moral failing with social consequences.
Modern psychology and neuroscience illuminate multiple routes by which the boundary between fact and fiction can erode, some consonant with Peck’s moral diagnosis and others pointing to different causes.
Neurological conditions—frontal‑lobe damage, certain dementias—produce confabulation: sincere, detailed false memories without intent to deceive.
Disorders that impair insight, like anosognosia, leave people genuinely unable to recognize obvious facts about themselves.
Personality pathology and habitual lying (pseudologia fantastica) blur the line when fabrication acquires an internal logic and the teller alternates between deception and belief.
More pervasive still are everyday cognitive mechanisms—motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, identity‑protective cognition—that bend perception to fit emotional or social needs.
Social dynamics compound these processes: echo chambers, groupthink, and institutional rituals can transform individual distortions into collective reality.
These varieties of truth collapse differ in their moral and clinical implications.
Where brain injury produces confabulation, the person lacks culpable awareness and needs protection and rehabilitation.
Where motivated denial or character‑driven deception dominates—Peck’s hallmark—the person is morally responsible and harms others by preventing accountability.
Personality disorders combine impaired reality testing with relational dysfunction, requiring long‑term therapeutic work.
At a larger scale, ideological or institutional untruths corrode public trust, punish whistleblowers, and enable systemic harm.
Why the distinction matters is not merely epistemic.
For Peck, facing facts is the first step toward moral repair. Willful denial perpetuates abuse by directing pain outward—onto spouses, children, subordinates—while cultural and institutional denial undermines the mechanisms that allow societies to correct course.
Clinically, distinguishing incapacity from evasion guides whether to treat, protect, punish, or reconcile.
Practically, interventions must match cause: cognitive rehabilitation and safety for neurological deficits; therapies that build insight, responsibility, and relational capacity for personality and character disorders; systemic reforms—transparent procedures, protections for dissent, and incentives for accountability—for organizations and communities.
Peck’s framing—psychological blended with moral and spiritual language—has its critics. Labeling people “evil” risks moralizing complex phenomena that also have developmental, social, and biological roots.
Clinicians and communities must avoid crude verdicts and attend to the interplay of trauma, neurobiology, and social incentives that produce denial.
Still, Peck’s enduring insight is useful: truth is not only a set of propositions but a practice.
Restoring the distinction between fact and fiction is less an abstract epistemic task than the slow work of cultivating honesty, accountability, and the courage to suffer being wrong.
Whether the collapse of truth stems from brain dysfunction, defensive morality, personality pathology, or social machinery, the remedy lies in combining clinical care, moral engagement, and structural reforms that make it safer—sometimes costly—to tell and hear the truth.
Only by treating truthfulness as a disciplined habit, Peck suggests, can individuals and communities recover the capacity to let facts reshape conscience and conduct.
Thank you for bringing us something clarifying to reflect on every day.
Pope Leo keeps helping us ! I loved Papa Francis but I am increasingly impressed by how Pope Leo takes active moral stands we need to hear.