# VIII: The Duty of Lying explained — Disenchantment

> Chapter companion for Disenchantment by C. E. Montague.

## What happens

This chapter explores the corrosive effect of war on truth and the press, arguing that wartime propaganda creates a lasting moral exemption for lying. The author contends that the state's systematic use of deception during war, justified by the 'state of war' mentality, corrupts public and private veracity, leading to a postwar inability to return to honest discourse. Drawing parallels to ancient Greece and contemporary Ireland, the chapter warns that professional propagandists, once honored for their lies, will carry their skills into peacetime, further eroding trust in facts and institutions.

## Themes in this chapter

### Propaganda and Deception

The chapter focuses on how the state uses propaganda to manipulate public opinion during war, and how this practice corrupts the press and erodes the value of truth in peacetime.

### Disillusionment and Disenchantment

The author expresses disillusionment with the postwar inability to return to honest discourse, as the wartime habit of lying persists and undermines trust in institutions.

### Critique of Authority and Institutions

The chapter criticizes the state and the press for their role in institutionalizing deception, and warns of the long-term damage to public morality and democratic accountability.

## Character check-ins

### Kipling

Quoted for his poem about the trained soldier, used as a metaphor for the advantage of habitually untruthful journalists over honest ones in wartime propaganda.

### Tomkins

Referenced from Scott's 'Woodstock' as an example of a man who believes himself above moral ordinances, paralleling the journalist who justifies lying for the public good.

### Lovely Phoebe

Character from Scott's 'Woodstock' used to illustrate Tomkins' seductive moral reasoning, which the author likens to the propaganda expert's self-justification.

## Key lines

> War that after a long period of peace and general saturation with peace morals it took some time to release the average English youth from his indurated distaste for stabbing men in the bowels.

After a long peace, it was difficult for young Englishmen to overcome their ingrained aversion to killing in war.

_Introduces the idea that war requires a moral shift, which the author later applies to the press's shift toward lying._

> They all do it 'over the left.' They have stolen the key of the magical garden wherein you may do things that are elsewhere most wicked and yet enjoy the mental peace of the soldier which passeth all understanding.

People justify immoral acts in war by mentally declaring a 'state of war,' which grants them moral exemption.

_Central metaphor for how war licenses deception and violence, with lasting consequences for truth-telling._

> They tell me we've pulled through at last all right because our propergander dished out better lies than what the Germans did. So I say to myself 'If tellin' lies is all that bloody good in war, what bloody good is tellin' truth in peace?'

A soldier reflects that if lying won the war, then truth has no value in peacetime.

_Captures the postwar disillusionment and the moral confusion caused by wartime propaganda._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/disenchantment_se/chapters/viii-the-duty-of-lying
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/disenchantment_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/disenchantment_se/chapters