What the Chinese People Know That We Don't Know - Continued
Last time I asked whether truth was as important to Americans as it seems to be for the Chinese people these days. The fact is, I don't think it is.
Relativism has seeped into every nook and cranny of our culture. People who believe in relativism believe that what's true or false is what's true or false for you. By extension, what's good or bad is what's good or bad for you. So there is no objective truth, no objective right and wrong. I became aware of the insidiousness relativism in college, mostly through the efforts of a good professor who clearly explained the problems with this approach. I won't go through the details now, but everything he said would happen as a result of more and more people rejecting the idea that there is objective truth and objective right and wrong has come to pass. I didn't believe him at the time. I thought he was exaggerating. But he wasn't.
In case you're not sure what I mean, or you're not convinced that relativism is a problem, watch this video clip - which I believe to be authentic, and not some satire - and you'll understand.
This is precisely what a world drenched in relativism looks like. I must say that when I first watched this, it really disturbed me. Can you see how the very ideas of right and wrong don't even exist for these people?
My wife saw it and thought of the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. There's no violence here, as there is in the novel, but can you see why people who think this way can not only steal and scam, but maim, even kill with hardly a second thought?
Going back to the Chinese people, we know that they lived in a world without truth for decades. Truth was what the Party (Communist Party) said it was. Could it be that the people have finally had it? Could it be that they thirst for real truth?
And could it be that America is sinking under the weight of a rejection of truth and a wholesale acceptance of relativism, with these two girls serving as the poster children of the new America.
Let's not only hope not, let's make sure it doesn't happen.
Maybe one way to make sure is to just remember this clip whenever you come across people who think that there's no objective basis for true and false or good and bad or, for that matter, beautiful and ugly. You must never, ever let these ideas or this sort of attitude anywhere near you or your family.
Imagine your son or daughter speaking like these two girls are speaking. That's a pretty horrible thought, isn't it?
Well, isn't it?
Relativism has seeped into every nook and cranny of our culture. People who believe in relativism believe that what's true or false is what's true or false for you. By extension, what's good or bad is what's good or bad for you. So there is no objective truth, no objective right and wrong. I became aware of the insidiousness relativism in college, mostly through the efforts of a good professor who clearly explained the problems with this approach. I won't go through the details now, but everything he said would happen as a result of more and more people rejecting the idea that there is objective truth and objective right and wrong has come to pass. I didn't believe him at the time. I thought he was exaggerating. But he wasn't.
In case you're not sure what I mean, or you're not convinced that relativism is a problem, watch this video clip - which I believe to be authentic, and not some satire - and you'll understand.
This is precisely what a world drenched in relativism looks like. I must say that when I first watched this, it really disturbed me. Can you see how the very ideas of right and wrong don't even exist for these people?
My wife saw it and thought of the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. There's no violence here, as there is in the novel, but can you see why people who think this way can not only steal and scam, but maim, even kill with hardly a second thought?
Going back to the Chinese people, we know that they lived in a world without truth for decades. Truth was what the Party (Communist Party) said it was. Could it be that the people have finally had it? Could it be that they thirst for real truth?
And could it be that America is sinking under the weight of a rejection of truth and a wholesale acceptance of relativism, with these two girls serving as the poster children of the new America.
Let's not only hope not, let's make sure it doesn't happen.
Maybe one way to make sure is to just remember this clip whenever you come across people who think that there's no objective basis for true and false or good and bad or, for that matter, beautiful and ugly. You must never, ever let these ideas or this sort of attitude anywhere near you or your family.
Imagine your son or daughter speaking like these two girls are speaking. That's a pretty horrible thought, isn't it?
Well, isn't it?
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