Interesting how the Internet, often seen as a place where you can hide behind any pseudo-identity, and where the ease of anonymity allows free reign to darker impulses, has in Johann Hari’s case provided not only the temptation but also the bringing to light of deception.
His case illustrates the other side of the data age: the sheer amount of data available online, the power of crowd-sourcing (or in this case crowd-investigation) and the invisible trail which links us all to the machines we use, have made it impossible for him to hide. Astonishing that he underestimated its power so completely, that he took so few precautions, that he thought it wouldn’t catch up with him.
Such a web of deceit may not be as uncommon as we’d like to believe, but it’s extraordinary to see it laid out for us so completely. The scale of his bizarre behaviour as his alter ego ‘David Rose’, both deceitful and malicious, is perhaps more surprising than his plagiarism (which itself can hardly be excused by the ‘I didn’t know’ defence). Did he really think he’d get away with it? Or was he not really thinking?
This case has brought to mind bigger questions for me. So many of us live with varying levels of false identity and deception, with secrets and lies that we hope will stay hidden. The thought of having our deceptions, our darkest impulses, our libellous words and thoughts made known fills us with horror. When the deceit of others is discovered we react with astonishment and condescension but what arrogance and foolishness lets us think that our own lies will never be uncovered, that we’ll never be ‘found out’?
The Bible promises that one day all things will be brought into the light, that all will be uncovered and made known. Many of us long for the day when light will triumph and darkness will be no more. But, as Jesus said, some will prefer darkness: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19).
It is fear and pride that keep us from coming into the light, from allowing truth and justice to shine on our own deeds as well as those of others. But those of us who know Jesus, the light of the world himself, know that it is into love as well as light that we step and that if we embrace the light we have nothing to fear from truth, except the death of pride. And it is only through this death that we can be raised into light and life. If we want to live in a world where truth and justice reign, where there is no more darkness, then we have to allow our own selves, our own darkness, to be brought into the light.
Light can be uncomfortable when it shines on our darkness, but there’s freedom there too. Just three verses previous to that verse above, John famously tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”(John 3:16-17). Whatever our darkness, God loves us enough to die for us. He wants us to live in freedom, in newness of life, without condemnation, and without fear.
Hari’s uncovering marks a turning point for him and a warning for the rest of us. With so much exposed, his pride battered before the world, there’s paradoxically a moment of freedom here, of release. There’s nothing left to fear when there’s nothing to lose. But there’s always a choice when we’re found out: do we hide our actions better next time, or do we decide to live a different way? Do we embrace the truth of who we are or cover it up? In exposure, there’s an opportunity to decide what kind of person we want to be – not only in the eyes of the world, but in our own eyes and in truth.
Every blessing to Johann Hari in the journey.
