Relativism sucks

There's a joke that says you should tell the truth because it's easier to remember. That's because the lie is fabricated while the truth is observed. For a lie to prevail, it must claim an equal footing with the truth or silence the truth completely. Thus arise relativism and totalitarianism.

The most pernicious lie advocates for the supremacy of the will. It prevents sinners from recognizing themselves as such, and hardens their hearts to God. They substitute their own truth over the created order, foresaking the one true remedy to their fallen spiritual condition.

"To every man his own truth, and the God within." –Marion Zimmer Bradley

"We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." –Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI

That objects have no inherent value, only subjective ones that people assign them from the disorder of their minds, is a construct that allows falsehood to flourish. If the truth is like a hill standing above the plain, you must level the hill to prop up the lie.

You see this leveling in modern art. How could Life magazine insinuate Jackson Pollock was the greatest living American painter in 1949? Did the war kill off every talented artist in America? No, it just concretized the intelligentsia's prejudices against icky objective truths that have enflamed so many men to separation and violence. Contrast Pollock's drip paintings with a Monet or a Rembrandt. One is the work of inspiration, talent, and industry. The other you can't discern from garbage.

Even art by a mediocre talent is preferable to Pollock’s best efforts. The key difference is in the attempt at saying anything of substance. Pollock gave his paintings nondescript names, like “No. 5,” because names with actual words, which have objective meaning, might prejudice the viewer against what the viewer wants to see. Oh, you see a tree orchard? I see old men playing chess. Tom sees a shipwreck.

"The world prior to the modern age was filled with divine meaning and purpose. And the mission of the artist was to serve humanity by awakening us to that divine meaning and purpose by representing such in new and beautiful complexions. But the rise of modern science in effect de-sanctified the world by supposedly exposing all cultural meaning systems as fabrications. The world is not governed by the gods or divine meaning or purpose, but rather by physical, chemical, and biological causal laws. The mission of the artist is now redefined; the modern secular artist all too often seeks to celebrate the new, the hip, by tearing down cultural fences and mores and exposing them as artificial constructions. Art increasingly exists to shock, to turn our heads and grab our attentions with blasphemous and pornographic content. So much of modern secular art is a window into a world devoid of any objective meaning, any sense of care and purpose." –Steve Turley

That alienation you feel when you look upon modern art is the loss of hope for truth. Look upon enough modern art and the mental decks will be cleared for an evildoer to manipulate you to do his bidding.

By contrast, it is no small thing to entertain people with your art. There is something beautiful in the specificity of a story, the way it resonates with the truth and speaks to the reader's emotions and lived experiences.

I want to know what you think. Leave a comment below and I'll reply as soon as I can.

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