TOO SCARED TO TELL

A sweeping examination of the costs and challenges of telling the truth.

At the beginning of his book, Corbin invokes a very familiar dictum, something every one of his readers will have heard at some point in their lives: “Nobody likes a tattletale.” Corbin points out the obvious: The idea of “don’t talk or else” permeates virtually every level and aspect of society. Whether it’s domestic abuse victims naming their abusers or criminal witnesses identifying suspects or even young people pointing out which of their peers is bullying them, Corbin’s account aims to consider the broadest possible array of what he calls the very courageous act of whistleblowing, and the author cogently examines the deeper levels of collateral damage that accumulate around society’s knee-jerk characterization of whistleblowing as somehow weak or disloyal. “Does the cultural repugnance for people who tell about illegal or unethical activity,” he asks, “lead to an acceptance of a certain amount of wrong doing, from lying and cheating to criminal activity?” The book covers various types of truth telling, the consequences, and the sometimes surprising resistance to being honest—even from those who otherwise consider themselves ethical. “Co-workers view whistleblowing as jeopardizing them and their family’s wellbeing—a regular pay check and health benefits,” Corbin writes, “and they’re not afraid to say so.” The author fleshes out the narrative with many examples drawn from real cases of whistleblowing—everything from corporate espionage to ordinary homeowners dealing with the appearance of suburban crack houses.

Corbin writes all this with a refreshing lack of fuss; his prose is forceful without being strident, and the many examples he gives—of both bravery and cowardice in the face of the need to reveal charged facts—are powerfully and economically drawn. These examples move all along the spectrum of the subject, including, of course, such famous whistleblowers as Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden, whose stories are told with the sharpness of genuine moral outrage. “While Snowden’s detractors were busy crying ‘Treason!’ (which only applies during a war) and demanding that he face the death penalty, they ignore the inconvenient fact that everything NSA was doing was not only in clear violation of federal law, but that a violation of that law carries a prison sentence,” he writes in one such passage. “Has anyone from NSA been charged? Short answer—No.” Some of the author’s judgments on various aspects of whistleblowing can be surprisingly harsh, as in the case of his angry, seemingly hypocritical dismissal of the U.S. Witness Protection Program instituted to protect people who testify against organized crime. “Hiding may be highly desirable for snitches and criminals who live on the margins of life,” he writes, but “it doesn’t work for regular people.” Corbin’s unwavering dedication to the core of his subject—the paramount importance of telling the truth—gives all of his various discussions a compelling moral force. Any reader who’s ever faced this kind of choice—and that’s virtually every reader—will find thought-provoking and sometimes uncomfortable reading in these pages.

A wide-ranging and urgently readable moral manifesto on the importance of veracity.