[Note: This book probably isn’t about the age of consent that you’re thinking of.]

The Age Of Consent: The Rise Of Relativism And The Corruption Of Popular Culture, by Robert H. Knight

As a sixth-grader, I had to read a book about a ragamuffin horse in the 1700’s, and one of our assignments in English class after finishing the book was to draw a horse in honor of the novel’s protagonist. In my mind’s eye, I wanted to draw a beautiful thoroughbred eating grass on a pleasant and verdant hill, but the horse that came out of my pencil drawing was ugly and deformed, on a barren wilderness that approximated a lonely lunarscape rather than the landscape of the Piedmont area of Appalachia that I had in mind. Horrified at what I had created, I despondently turned in my drawing only to find out weeks later that it had won an award for best surrealist drawing. I do not know to this day whether my teacher was trying to be kind, or whether they actually thought that my horse was an avant garde drawing worthy of praise and recognition. For my own part, I was greatly distressed that my longing to create beauty had only succeeded in creating something distorted and twisted, as though the beauty I wished to express could not help but be shaped by a troubled and tormented soul through which that art was mediated. It was not the first nor the last time that would be a problem.

This book is a very blunt and searching book that has a high moral standard and an unwillingness to compromise on moral issues involving culture. The full title of the book describes its contents well, showing how immoral relativism, in which all opinions are valid except for those which support any kind of ‘traditionalist’ faith (here the author shows himself remarkably tolerant, though this was written in the mid-90’s, in having a ‘big tent’ idea of moral traditionalists that include Christians, Jews, and Muslims, a coalition that would seem rather difficult to gather together today). Examining the spread of moral corruption in television, the movies, art, music, architecture, and examining the insidious role of politics and government as well as the entertainment industry as an agent of tyranny against godly beliefs, the only fault I would have about this book is that it is far too optimistic about the moral state of this country, in an ending that points hopefully to signs of a reversal of moral collapse that has only accelerated in the nearly 20 years since this book was written.

At the heart of this book is an agonizingly well-researched and rather grim portrayal at the deliberate efforts of the corrupt elites of our high cultures in demonizing godly behaviors and ways of life as obsolete and harmful while continuing to lead our culture deliberately into decadence through intractable hostility to delayed gratification in all forms and a gratuitous celebration of the basest instincts in human nature in their search to enslave mankind to lusts in the name of freedom from moral restraint. This point is made over and over again in different contexts, pointing at the two-faced anarchy and tyranny present within the relativistic program, which uses the methods of anarchy when it is weak and desires to be seen as legitimate and tyrannical oppression of the godly when it is strong in either institutions or governments. This book is full of anecdotes, sharp analysis, and meticulous research which shows the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the left when it comes to defending their cultural program.

This is a book which is admirable in its scope and approach, as well as unapologetic in its defense of Judeo-Christian standards, even if it is not a book which is pleasant to read. Although the book is itself far too optimistic about the strength of moral fiber within our society, given the advanced stage of our moral corruption as a society, it does represent a hopeful (if ultimately frightening) picture of a pendulum swing in which the corrupt and immoral excesses of our contemporary society will provoke a harsh reaction to more puritanical standards of behavior. Although this author seems to welcome such a shift, we ought not to be blind to the dangers that could easily result from such a shift even as we decry the corruption and moral decay that we are witnessing here and now. The enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend, after all.