An authentic Cynic search . . . Americans Who Tell the Truth, a Gallery

 

Americans Who Tell the Truth is a gallery of American Truth Tellers., a valued resource when most of the media culture is saturated with a mix-match of untruthful, confused, anxious, fearful, greedy, angry, hateful voices, caught up in all the temporal nature of the cultural-political establishment, instead of natural and moral laws, the basis for an art of life.

This fits the spirit of Diogenes of Sinope, who lit a lamp in daylight and walked through the streets of Athens with it; and when asked why, replied that he was looking for a man. Lighting a lamp in daylight was a proverbial expression for a futile exercise, thus a symbolic action which was designed to suggest that it is pointless to expect to be able to find a man in Athens. An honest man? A good one?

Yet the thought is more radical than that. “The mass of people, who accept conventional social values, not knowing what human nature is and what it means to live in accordance with nature; they are not really proper human beings at all, but anonymous members of the crowd, or slaves [21st C. ruled by, addiction to, attached to, etc.]  or scum [just plain old un-learned ignorance] to use the expressions that Diogenes applies to such people in various anecdotes.” [1]

Diogenes in His Barrel. Fragment of an oil lamp, Italy, first century CE. British Museum, London, 1814

Here are a few of the honest Americans in the gallery of whom I have read and followed.  Take time to visit this site. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Pastor, American prophet, Civil Rights Leader

Ralph Nader, American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a perennial presidential candidate.

 

James Baldwin, American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems.

 Wendell Berry, American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.

John Robert Lewis, American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020.

Chris Hedges, an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister.

William J. Barber II, American Protestant minister, social activist, professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School; president and senior lecturer at Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. 

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[1] DIOGENES THE CYNIC: Sayings and Anecdotes with Other Popular Moralists. Translated, Introduction and Notes, Robin Hard, Oxford Univ. Press, 2017, ix