In Live Not by Lives, author Rod Dreher presents how the western world is heading towards being controlled by a “soft totalitarianism,” as first presented by Solzhenitsyn in a talk of the same name. In expressing how it is necessary for people to fight back against totalitarianism, soft or hard, Dreher highlights the importance of valuing and living by the truth when fighting against totalitarianism, because understanding what is true and standing by that truth weakens the control of the totalitarian power, especially since overtime, the more people stand by the truth, the more the truth is revealed and spread. After presenting Václav Havel’s example of a greengrocer, who puts up totalitarian propaganda signs in his shop not because he believes it, but because he knows conformity will keep him safe, it is proposed what would happen if the greengrocer took the sign down and started to live the truth he believes. Havel said, “In this revolt the greengrocer steps out of living within the lie. He rejects the ritual and breaks the rules of the game. He discovers once more his suppressed identity and dignity. He gives his freedom a concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth,” (Dreher, 98). Dreher explains how by living the truth not the lie, the greengrocer, or anyone really, has regained his freedom and sense of individual identity that was lost under conforming to the totalitarian regime. That desire of wanting to live the truth and have individuality can be seen in Aldous Huxley’s character Bernard Marx in Brave New World, who, despite belonging to the highest caste in the society, feels outcast and different due to his physical height and his intellectual desire to explore the world and stray from the mindless conformity of the society. When on a date with Lenina, he refuses to essentially do drugs and get high like everyone else in the society does regularly, stating, “I’d rather be myself,’ he said. ‘Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly,’” (Huxley, 89). Bernard views the drugs, which relax people and allow them to enjoy the pleasantries of their society, as a means for making people so relaxed they mindlessly conform to society and the government’s whims. He wants to avoid that conformity, wants to be more truthful to himself like Havel’s greengrocer, because being himself separates him from everyone else, giving him that individuality and ability to see the world raw that he desires.