A crowd of journalists, politicians, commentators, and activists gathered in central London on the hottest day of the year so far to attend a black-tie event organised by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Last night I had the pleasure of attending the UK premiere of Live Not By Lies, the documentary adaptation of Rod Dreher’s 2020 book of the same name.
Before the screening, there was a speech by Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin. Kisin, having spent a large part of his childhood in the Soviet Union, was well-placed to bring together the themes of the film—totalitarianism, in its various forms, past and present.
Live Not By Lies was released by Angel Studios in April this year on its streaming platform as a four-part miniseries, though at yesterday evening’s viewing, we watched it in one go. It describes itself as “a powerful warning from Soviet dissidents about the emerging totalitarianism in our society,” which it undoubtedly is. The film features interviews with various experts on the subject—notably, author Douglas Murray, associate professor of philosophy of religion at Cambridge University Dr. James Orr, and the ADF’s senior legal communications officer, Lois McLatchie Miller. McLatchie Miller herself has experience with being arrested for speech-related crimes. Just last month, she and Chris Elston (better known as Billboard Chris) were arrested in Brussels for holding signs decrying the gender transitioning of children. They were both released without charges after a few hours, but the whole ordeal was a frightening reminder that free speech now holds little sway in many Western countries.
As was pointed out at yesterday’s premiere, perhaps nowhere is in more need of this warning than the UK. Here, our speech rights are being eroded at a terrifying pace. Stories like that of Lucy Connolly, a wife and mother who was imprisoned for over two-and-a-half years for a tweet, reminds us just how dire the situation is here. So too, does Live Not By Lies. The documentary opens with the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic woman who was arrested twice in Birmingham in 2022 for silently praying outside an abortion clinic. In video footage of the incident, a police officer can be seen interrogating Vaughan-Spruce as to whether she was protesting or praying. When she admitted that she “might be praying in my head,” she was arrested for breaking a Public Space Protection Order that had been set up to prevent protests near the clinic. It is a case that anyone in the UK who cares about free speech will be familiar with. But it was nonetheless jarring to hear Vaughan-Spruce describe in her own words how she was arrested for thoughtcrimes in 21st century Britain.
But the real highlight of Live Not By Lies is the interviews with various dissidents who lived under and resisted Communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe. What they have to say is both inspiring and terrifying.
One Czech activist, Ludek Bednar, a member of the legendary informal resistance group Charter 77, describes the parallels he sees between the Communist regimes of the Cold War era and the pervasive woke orthodoxy we live under now. If anything, he says, it is more difficult to fight back today because we live with an illusion of freedom. It is not always clear who the enemy is or where the totalitarian impulses and ideology are coming from.
We also hear from Kamila Bendová, the widow of Catholic anti-Communist activist Václav Benda and a heroine in her own right. Bendová and her husband were core members of Charter 77 and often held underground meetings in their Prague flat. Benda was imprisoned in 1979 for four years. At one point, he was offered the opportunity to be exiled to Austria along with his whole family, on the condition they ceased their activism. But Bendová was adamant he not go. To her, continuing to speak the truth was far more valuable than their freedom.
One particular anecdote from Bendová stuck with me. While her husband was in prison, she worked in a university, having trained as a mathematician. At one point, she was helping to organise a conference. But when other academics found out she was on the committee, they caused such an uproar that the entire event was cancelled. No one wanted to be seen as supporting Bendová or her dissident husband.
This is obviously not the most brutal or cruel example of repression showcased in the documentary. There is no shortage of stories about activists being tortured within an inch of their lives, imprisoned for years, and their families endlessly harassed. But what happened to Bendová’s conference is exactly the kind of thing that would happen today. We see it all the time in the form of cancel culture—controversial authors being unable to find publishers, ‘problematic’ speakers being de-platformed at universities, people losing their jobs over their private beliefs.
It is this brand of ‘soft totalitarianism’ that Live Not By Lies really succeeds in highlighting. Yes, we are fortunate enough in the West to still have free and fair elections. We can come and go from our countries as we please. You might end up with a fine or a prison sentence for ‘hate speech,’ but at least you (probably) won’t be beaten and tortured. But in many ways, this kind of oppression can be more pernicious and difficult to revolt against than the one experienced by dissidents who lived behind the Iron Curtain. The documentary points out that the mass brainwashing, or collective gaslighting, currently taking place in schools, in government institutions, in the media, and even in many workplaces makes wokeness a difficult foe to fight. It was not necessarily imposed from on high, but disseminated throughout society by disparate groups and actors. Conformity is enforced sometimes by the law, but more often by our own peers.
While Dreher’s book is billed as a “manual,” the documentary can be viewed as more of a cautionary tale. Having survivors of some of history’s most repressive regimes warn us that we are heading down the same authoritarian path is not for the faint of heart. It feels almost like an accusation, too. The age old question of “what would I have done in their shoes?” becomes “what will I do now?” We are forced to confront an answer that most of us are unlikely to be very pleased with.
Live Not By Lies: A Cautionary Tale for an Illiberal Age
europeanconservative.com / Angel Studios
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A crowd of journalists, politicians, commentators, and activists gathered in central London on the hottest day of the year so far to attend a black-tie event organised by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Last night I had the pleasure of attending the UK premiere of Live Not By Lies, the documentary adaptation of Rod Dreher’s 2020 book of the same name.
Before the screening, there was a speech by Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin. Kisin, having spent a large part of his childhood in the Soviet Union, was well-placed to bring together the themes of the film—totalitarianism, in its various forms, past and present.
Live Not By Lies was released by Angel Studios in April this year on its streaming platform as a four-part miniseries, though at yesterday evening’s viewing, we watched it in one go. It describes itself as “a powerful warning from Soviet dissidents about the emerging totalitarianism in our society,” which it undoubtedly is. The film features interviews with various experts on the subject—notably, author Douglas Murray, associate professor of philosophy of religion at Cambridge University Dr. James Orr, and the ADF’s senior legal communications officer, Lois McLatchie Miller. McLatchie Miller herself has experience with being arrested for speech-related crimes. Just last month, she and Chris Elston (better known as Billboard Chris) were arrested in Brussels for holding signs decrying the gender transitioning of children. They were both released without charges after a few hours, but the whole ordeal was a frightening reminder that free speech now holds little sway in many Western countries.
As was pointed out at yesterday’s premiere, perhaps nowhere is in more need of this warning than the UK. Here, our speech rights are being eroded at a terrifying pace. Stories like that of Lucy Connolly, a wife and mother who was imprisoned for over two-and-a-half years for a tweet, reminds us just how dire the situation is here. So too, does Live Not By Lies. The documentary opens with the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic woman who was arrested twice in Birmingham in 2022 for silently praying outside an abortion clinic. In video footage of the incident, a police officer can be seen interrogating Vaughan-Spruce as to whether she was protesting or praying. When she admitted that she “might be praying in my head,” she was arrested for breaking a Public Space Protection Order that had been set up to prevent protests near the clinic. It is a case that anyone in the UK who cares about free speech will be familiar with. But it was nonetheless jarring to hear Vaughan-Spruce describe in her own words how she was arrested for thoughtcrimes in 21st century Britain.
But the real highlight of Live Not By Lies is the interviews with various dissidents who lived under and resisted Communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe. What they have to say is both inspiring and terrifying.
One Czech activist, Ludek Bednar, a member of the legendary informal resistance group Charter 77, describes the parallels he sees between the Communist regimes of the Cold War era and the pervasive woke orthodoxy we live under now. If anything, he says, it is more difficult to fight back today because we live with an illusion of freedom. It is not always clear who the enemy is or where the totalitarian impulses and ideology are coming from.
We also hear from Kamila Bendová, the widow of Catholic anti-Communist activist Václav Benda and a heroine in her own right. Bendová and her husband were core members of Charter 77 and often held underground meetings in their Prague flat. Benda was imprisoned in 1979 for four years. At one point, he was offered the opportunity to be exiled to Austria along with his whole family, on the condition they ceased their activism. But Bendová was adamant he not go. To her, continuing to speak the truth was far more valuable than their freedom.
One particular anecdote from Bendová stuck with me. While her husband was in prison, she worked in a university, having trained as a mathematician. At one point, she was helping to organise a conference. But when other academics found out she was on the committee, they caused such an uproar that the entire event was cancelled. No one wanted to be seen as supporting Bendová or her dissident husband.
This is obviously not the most brutal or cruel example of repression showcased in the documentary. There is no shortage of stories about activists being tortured within an inch of their lives, imprisoned for years, and their families endlessly harassed. But what happened to Bendová’s conference is exactly the kind of thing that would happen today. We see it all the time in the form of cancel culture—controversial authors being unable to find publishers, ‘problematic’ speakers being de-platformed at universities, people losing their jobs over their private beliefs.
It is this brand of ‘soft totalitarianism’ that Live Not By Lies really succeeds in highlighting. Yes, we are fortunate enough in the West to still have free and fair elections. We can come and go from our countries as we please. You might end up with a fine or a prison sentence for ‘hate speech,’ but at least you (probably) won’t be beaten and tortured. But in many ways, this kind of oppression can be more pernicious and difficult to revolt against than the one experienced by dissidents who lived behind the Iron Curtain. The documentary points out that the mass brainwashing, or collective gaslighting, currently taking place in schools, in government institutions, in the media, and even in many workplaces makes wokeness a difficult foe to fight. It was not necessarily imposed from on high, but disseminated throughout society by disparate groups and actors. Conformity is enforced sometimes by the law, but more often by our own peers.
While Dreher’s book is billed as a “manual,” the documentary can be viewed as more of a cautionary tale. Having survivors of some of history’s most repressive regimes warn us that we are heading down the same authoritarian path is not for the faint of heart. It feels almost like an accusation, too. The age old question of “what would I have done in their shoes?” becomes “what will I do now?” We are forced to confront an answer that most of us are unlikely to be very pleased with.
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