In a recent podcast I’m listening to about the era of kingdoms in the BC era, it’s at the point in history where Cyrus the Great and the Persian empire are really taking off. Assyria has just been defeated just years before, and here this Cyrus guy comes out of nowhere conquering more and more territory.
Cyrus is known for being one of the most well-respected leaders in history. The way he led was very different from most of the rulers of other nations at the time. Namely, not going in and killing everyone necessarily, but allowing people to stay right where they were or go to their hometown if they just submitted to Cyrus as ruler.
In the Persian empire, one of the things they treated quite seriously was lying. From a young age, it was ingrained into them that lying was absolutely not acceptable. In fact, lying was a crime punishable by death
I think about that in America. What if one day, there were a law against lying and it was punishable by death. What would things look like?
Would people start to tell less exaggerative stories? Would people tell others only the things they knew for sure? Could you still have salespeople? What might business and jobs look like?
The idea of dying for telling a lie is a hard thing to think about. It seems so extreme. What kind of good vs bad effects might it have on a city or nation if it was administered? And if it were put into place, how would it be carried out? Would people actually listen to it? Would they be able to enforce it?
So many questions. Fortunately/unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see a real-life version of this. SO I’ll just have to use my imagination.