Navigating the seas of lies, fake news and deceptions, I invariably get frightened. Analyzing the putrid waves of the cons, I am still astonished to learn that people choose to lie and so many others choose to accept manipulation.

Honesty is at the opposite end of this behavior. An honest person will be honorable, respected, dignified. Other people will know that, living alongside honesty, they will not be subjected to lies, fraud and deceit.

Honest people were (and still are) admired, respected and seen as models by descendants, students and teams. Like an oasis in the desert, being with them is a relief, it is light, it is safe. It is a relief to be able to switch off the system of chronic distrust and trust that that person says courteously what needs to be said, without altering data and facts. It is a gift to know that, once their word is given, the person will keep it, just as contracted.

Contracts are made respectfully and fulfilled with honor. It is dignity expressed pragmatically in actions that, in turn, match the speeches. I lived in environments where honesty was expected as an indispensable value. I lived with environments where honesty was proclaimed and little practiced. I lived with men and women of extraordinary honor, who often paid dearly for coherence and consistency, but did so without pain. They did it with awareness.

I worked in environments where honesty was a basic requirement, and episodes of fraud truly frightened, because they were absolutely outside the practice of the vast majority.

In recent years, I was able to experience the other side: behaviors guided by almost pathological lying, absence of dignity and honor, incoherence and varied damage as painful consequences. Not even these traumatic and abusive experiences prepared me to see honesty vilified and fragmented and its opposite twin, lying, take the conductor’s baton of collective coexistence.

Dishonesty, accompanied by its court (lying, falsehood, manipulation, theft, hypocrisy), dominates the scene, with dramatic text and violent grandiloquence, taking the stage and mesmerizing numerous audiences. How can this be? Do people not notice? Do they not see the arguments based on flagrant lies? Are their ears equipped with conversion filters? Are they hypnotized?

It is possible to understand the genesis of this collective blindness, but that is equally frightening. And, certainly, none of this is that new.

In a speech to the Federal Senate in 1914, Rui Barbosa, a politician from Bahia, jurist, lawyer, diplomat, writer, philologist, journalist, translator and orator, exclaimed, furious: “From seeing nullities triumph; from seeing dishonor prosper; from seeing injustice grow; from seeing the powers of the wicked swell into giants, a man comes to lose heart in virtue, to laugh at honor and to be ashamed of being honest” (our translation).

The revolt that animated that speech is, more than a century later, justified in the face of the collective absurdities reported every day and of the false and extortionate relationships in private settings. Dishonesty acquired the status of elegance and became “normalized.” A horror!

The reaction to honest, kind observations is still astonishment. I often have to explain myself: why I do not accept certain job proposals, why I do not do certain activities, why I choose not to live with certain people. Keeping coherence with a decision for honesty is, at some curious moments, the object of mockery disguised as a joke.

I feed my intention, my decision and my actions from different sources. There are still honest, generous, self-responsible people. There are texts and studies that strengthen my decision. And there are special dialogues, in which I replenish my inner strength so as not to lose hope.

Far from today’s times and still very current is the Bushido, the samurai code of conduct, which highlights lofty moral values. The samurai lived in Japan from the 8th century to the 19th century, and their code of honor is still spread, even outside Japan, and is extraordinarily suited to maintaining humane and honest coexistence. Its guidelines are current and applicable. In the Samurai Creed, one passage says: “I have no divine power; I make honesty my divine power.”

Deciding for honesty includes fidelity and loyalty to a purpose of collective and private evolution. Fidelity demands sincerity in words and deeds. Coherence and consistency sustain the decision. Living with honest people will nourish the journey. They still exist. There is still hope!