Trust, But Verify

Ronald Regan was taught a phrase back in the ’80s when he was in negotiations with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, as they were planning nuclear disarmament. Suzanne Massie, a writer in Russia taught him a proverb in Russian, and you simply must listen to this clip to hear the exchange between these two world leaders.

Doveryai, no proveryai.} (trust, but verify)

Trust, but verify.

“The Russians like to talk in Proverbs” was the advice, and as we all know, Proverbs are simply a short pithy saying used commonly to restate a general truth or piece of advice. We find King Solomon’s proverbs in many business and government settings as wise advice on how to treat situations, and his words are thousands of years old. So the advice has gained wisdom through the years and stood the test of time.

We use Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” to learn how to subdue the enemy without fighting and apply the knowledge to family squabbles and even business dealings. We even pick ol’ Ben Franklin’s wisdom and treat it like gold.

Needless to say, there are many such proverbs of old that make as much sense today as it did to the original owner.

But if we know anything about the internet, there is a plethora of advice that comes from a source that sounds worthy of our consideration. We may pick it up, try it out a few times, and if it fits our personality, then we claim the phrase as valid.

At the same time, we know the internet is chock full of false and misleading stories construed as fact. Do you know the old adage?  “If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t“. We default to trusting just because we heard it and it sounds truer than true. We even trust that doubting everything is okay. Add into this all the Fake News that has been the rage of news outlets everywhere, then you have a deep struggle trying to know what to believe!

Recently, a new acquaintance on one of my social media sources shared a story that was very heartfelt. I liked the sound of it and shared back with him how much I appreciated him sharing. Then someone posted that it was a made up story and full of untruths. Hmmm… Did I verify the story before I commented back? No. It was out of my range of interest, but since it sounded good I was willing to accept it at face value.

Now. I’m not upset that the story was said to be full of holes as I still have not verified. It could easily have been a Parable similar to some that Jesus taught, and by sharing it shows a good lesson we should all learn.

But it brought me to my thought this morning.

There is something valid to the idea that we should verify the stories we hear through all our sources, whether known or not, but it may be difficult to trust the veracity of every source unless you can track it back to the original person who spoke the words.

It’s called Fact Checking. Investigating the story and verifying the facts and know the veracity of the story before sharing it forward. It should be the first call to duty of everyone. We surely expect Police Detectives to do this, along with reporters, attorneys, moms, and dads!

The story or advice, even with factual problems, may still be a valid story of human nature and make sense to simply leave it alone. But, to repeat it as fact… well, that’s simply wrong.

To make something become a proverb, there must be years of study so that a generalized statement can fall out of it and make sense of the facts. Consider Solomon for a moment.

And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. (1 Kings 4:29-34 NKJV)

There must be an insight into human nature, as well as the nature of the world. Understanding people and the way they respond and act. The ability to see past the surface and delve into the history and background of any subject you could mention.

Is it simply an observation of life as they know it, or is it applicable into the future? If the shoe fits, wear it! Else, why would we continue to read and quote their words as if great wisdom was found in their ancient views?

I’m just saying. In this modern world of instant access to facts, we should feel the liberty to trust our sources, but it never hurts to verify… I keep telling myself this all the time, and still, there are times I’m caught up with a story that is not completely true.

Recently, a school group came under fire across the nation for something they did or didn’t do, and everyone took sides based on snippets of information without looking into all the facts. The key? You weren’t there! You don’t know anything unless you see and hear it online somehow. And then, whoever is the reporter is shading the story from their own biases and that makes me want to delve into their personal worldview to see if they can be trusted themselves!

Don’t get me started on who to trust, and how far do I trust their words, or whether they’ve proven their trust issues before!

Here’s a lesson we should all learn: Before you repeat something that you think you heard as fact, you should spend some time researching so that you do not come off looking like a clueless bumpkin repeating what you don’t know anything about!