We live in a time when fictitious election results elect a

Hear, O children of truth, the fiery lament of Michael Moore, who declared: “We live in a time when fictitious election results elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.” In these words lies not only anger, but a warning carved in sorrow. He speaks of an age when deception dresses itself as authority, when illusion passes for reality, and when the blood of nations is spilled not for justice, but for lies.

The origin of Moore’s cry lies in the storm of the early twenty-first century, when the disputed 2000 U.S. presidential election left the people divided. Ballots were contested, courts intervened, and many believed that the will of the people had been subverted. To Moore, the outcome was not merely flawed, but “fictitious”—a fabrication that crowned a ruler without the full consent of the governed. And soon after, this leader would lead his nation into war. Thus, fiction upon fiction became the scaffolding of power, and the truth itself seemed exiled.

Then came the march to the Iraq War in 2003, when the American people were told that weapons of mass destruction threatened the world. The drums of war thundered, soldiers were sent across seas, and thousands perished. Yet no such weapons were found. For Moore, this was not just an error but a fictitious reason, a manufactured justification for bloodshed. The lesson was clear: when leaders abandon truth, the people are the ones who pay in flesh and grief.

History bears many echoes of such moments. Recall the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898, which became the pretext for the Spanish-American War. “Remember the Maine!” was the cry, though the true cause of the explosion was uncertain, and likely accidental. Yet with that cry, a war was launched, empires shifted, and the map of the world was redrawn. Fiction cloaked itself in patriotism, and lives were lost to its deceit. Moore’s words remind us that such patterns repeat, unless vigilance and courage break the cycle.

The wisdom here is not to surrender to despair, but to awaken to responsibility. For when fictions rule, it is because the people have been lulled into silence, or have trusted too easily in the words of the powerful. Tyranny is not always born with chains; sometimes it arrives with speeches, flags, and promises that conceal their emptiness. And if we do not question, if we do not seek truth with relentless courage, then we become complicit in our own deception.

Moore’s lament is therefore a call to arms—not of steel, but of conscience. To demand accountability, to question leaders, to refuse to be carried by the tide of lies into the abyss of war. Democracy is not self-sustaining; it must be nourished by vigilance, sharpened by skepticism, and defended with courage. When the truth is manipulated, the citizen must become its guardian.

Therefore, O children of tomorrow, take this teaching: never accept the easy story, the convenient answer, the comfortable fiction. Seek truth, even when it is buried under the noise of propaganda. Stand firm against wars launched in shadow, against rulers crowned by deceit. For Moore’s words remind us that a people asleep will always be ruled by fictions—but a people awake can strip falsehood bare and demand a future built not on lies, but on justice. Guard the truth, and you guard the life of the nation itself.