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Phrase: Speak truth to power
The most important things are often the most difficult to do.
Many people have been ridiculed, beaten, jailed or murdered because they spoke truth to power.
Some of the most famous names in history are those of people who chose to confront authority about injustices instead of meekly standing by.
Names such as Gandhi, Mandela, King and every woman who has come out during the #Metoo movement have had to face negativity and dire consequences of their chosen actions.
To speak truth to power means to stand up to those in authority, confront them with current injustices and demand a moral response.
It involves much personal risk and, in extreme cases, the loss of one’s freedom or life.
If speaking truth to power is so hard, why do people do it?
Well, they feel they have to, I suppose.
Why did Gandhi lead the people on a march to the sea to make salt?
Sometimes civil disobedience is the only way to make those in authority understand how grave the injustice is.
On Gandhi’s march, somewhere around 60,000 people were arrested.
Imagine they wanted to be able to make salt for themselves.
They were banned from letting seawater evaporate to get the salt left behind.
The act itself may seem small, but it’s the principle of the matter which is essential.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for speaking truth to power against apartheid.
He was a nonviolent activist, yet he was seen as such a threat to the government, who wanted to maintain the status quo, that they had to lock him away for 27 years.
Of course, these people are the ultimate examples when we talk of speaking truth to power.
But when people are abused at work or face unfair conditions, they face the same fear when they try to speak up and confront their injustices.
It takes a brave person to speak truth to power.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 68.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.