A Code of Truth

A last observation having to do with the tendency of some Goreans to accept illusions and such as reality is that the Gorean tends to take such things as honor and truth very seriously. Given his culture and background, his values, he is often easier to impose upon than would be many others. For example, he is likely, at least upon occasion, to be an easier mark for the fraud and charlatan than a more suspicious, cynical fellow. On the other hand, I do not encourage lying to Goreans. They do not like it.
Page 255, Magicians of Gor

There is no doubt that Gorean ideals make a touchstone of honesty, and so I am making it our first moral standard to examine. Last month I spoke of investigating the standards and moral rights we have under the mantle of the Gorean Philosophy. This month I will continue to explore the specifics so that they can be defined and that you can incorporate this into your reality, living this Philosophy as it was intended. Not by characters or facades, but as people who are able to logically know, and be, exactly what they say. This road we walk will be the first of many codes, many expectations, and many ideals. There is no fence to straddle in this quest, no choice but to accept and live it, or walk away. The lesson is simple. This is your definition of what we have all worked for, what we have all spoke of, what we are required to live by.

If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking... the alleged shortcut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.
Ayn Rand

I am not asking you as readers, but showing you with John Norman’s own words, his philosophies uphold the value of truth as a Gorean standard. Norman backs this standard up with numerous quotes throughout his works, and as a living community it will be an expectation that is required of its residents. There can be no shortcuts, no freebees; honesty will be demanded of you by your Gorean peers.

Whether we are prepared or not, we must use truth as habit, to be adapted into our lives for the reason of our best humanity. It is expected because we earned these truths, they belong to us by action, and by deed. You do no good to speak falsely, or deal in deceits to those around you. To do so is to forge a path to more cover-ups, ultimately harming not only those you lie to, but to your own human nature. Growth comes from accepting change, and knowing where to stand your ground. It comes from accepting the knowledge and values that work in reality, for the betterment of yourself as well as your family.

Gorean Philosophy isn’t designed to be dissected so that one can pick and choose which parts are easy over which parts are difficult. It is designed as a whole, to express the nature of a whole human.

Norman, in all his fiction, often showed gleaming examples of why, and how, truth was valued and expressed by Goreans. Every caste has its specific and exacting Codes by which its members live, and love, and strive. It is not too far a stretch to think each individual community had a list of laws that applied to the city, or town that it supported. Why is there not a written code of honesty in our world, and why are we not told what value honesty, which is to say, truth, will bring us as individuals, and how it will enhance our communities?

The fact is, honesty will earn you the absolute acknowledgment of your peers, respect, honor, and responsibility. It will by habit connect you to your humanity, your decency, your integrity. It is the intangible axiom one can hope to own forever, to raise your sons and daughters on, and to die in the keeping of. It is one of the clearly defining attributes of the Gorean, one of the inflexible Codes by which you are known. In the end, truth is worth the fight.

I wish you well,

Nyre