“You Can’t Handle the Truth!”

[The] security of straight lines and absolute time in the public mind was slowly replaced with the unease that there were no absolutes at all.

(Title from “A Few Good Men” 1992)

The prolific English author and historian, the late Paul Johnson, began his seminal history, Modern Times, this way:

“The modern world began on 29 March 1919 when photographs of a solar eclipse, taken on the island of Principe off West Africa and at Sobral in Brazil, confirmed the truth of a new theory of the universe.”

Mr. Johnson explained that the two-century-old Newtonian law of physics, based on straight lines and absolute time, was challenged by the anomalies of the deviating motions of planets discovered by powerful new telescopes. Then, in 1905, a twenty-six-year-old German Jew, Albert Einstein, published a paper later known as the “Special Theory of Relativity“ that elegantly proposed that perspective could alter time and distance.

Mr. Einstein insisted that his theory “must be proved” by empirical evidence and proposed ways to do just that. The crucial test he asserted was that a ray of light just “grazing the surface of the sun must be bent by 1.745 seconds of arc – twice the gravitational deflection provided for by classical Newtonian theory.”

In 1919, the world learned that Mr. Einstein’s observation of that truth was correct.      

As a result, Mr. Johnson continued, “the security of straight lines and absolute time in the public mind was slowly replaced with the unease that there were no absolutes at all. There were no “absolutes of time and space, of good and evil, of knowledge, above all of value. Mistakenly, but perhaps inevitably, relativity became confused with relativism.”   

Ironically, Mr. Einstein was distressed by this misapplication of science and the conflation of one truth with another. “[Einstein] was not a practicing Jew,” Mr. Johnson wrote, “but acknowledged a God. He believed passionately in absolute standards of right and wrong. His professional life was devoted to the quest not only for truth but certitude.”

One hundred-odd years later, western civilization is in a death spiral, having reached the furthest run of that ongoing dispute: What is the Truth? Who decides? Who mediates?

Of course, this is not a new question. It dates back thousands of years to the ancient Hebrews and Greeks. To frame the question concisely, if there is a universal order of physical laws that cannot be altered or ignored, then is there a complimentary universal order of moral law that cannot be changed or unheeded? Does the certainty of the former point toward the existence of the latter?

For example, gravity will enforce the universe’s absolute, fundamental physical law with catastrophic consequences if someone jumps off the hundred-and-two-story Empire State Building – itself erected employing the same unalterable laws. A satellite or probe placed into orbit or sent into outer space must be precisely in synchromesh with the certainty of the universe’s physical laws – a minuscule deviating fraction in trajectory will mean orbital failure – or thousands or millions of miles of error.  

But, if there is a complimentary universal moral order – absolute truth – is it as unforgiving as the physical laws? Is it unqualified? And, if so, can we ignore those moral laws any more than we can dismiss physical laws that govern the universe?

The “relativism” to which Mr. Johnson referred screams “no!” to the question of universal moral order. In essence, it denies the existence of truth. “Truth is relative. Your truth is your truth, and mine is mine.” That’s the answer given by Rousseau, Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and the long line of despots and philosophers from the French Revolution in 1789 through this century. The idea of relative truth laid the groundwork for intellectual, moral, economic, and existential misery and the staggering death toll of hundreds of millions.    

In its various political arrangements, relativism and its philosophical offspring exemplified by Marxism and later Fascism have proven to be like a black hole that sucks everything into its ever-denser core, gathering every last thought into its darkness. Finally, it collapses upon itself and destroys everything under its influence.

This is playing out in the Western world as it abandons truth in its affairs and history—and that is why it demands that old statues, names, literature, and heroes be eliminated. Most critically, the concept of family must be removed, and ancient truths such as The Ten Commandments must be demolished.

The modern left has announced that it alone owns the “moral” voice overruling history. In the absence of definition or serious intellectual opposition, it has claimed exclusive custody of the truth without evidencing certitude.

Lost in today’s political hullabaloo over misinformation and fake news is the plain logic Mr. Einstein applied to his observation of truth a century ago. There is an absolute physical and moral order. What we say and do matters if that objective truth matters.

Objective reality cannot coexist with the subjective pursuit of “reason” outside the moral order (real fake news, if you will). The two forces are antithetical and repealing. Light and dark, good and evil. Anytime that “truth” is situational and debatable, the law of the relativistic jungle has replaced order; mob rule has supplanted reality based on observable and predictable certainty. This clarifies why relativism fuels the never-ending “social construction” that fills history: men attempting to build their vision of society through sheer willpower or physical force or erecting social constructs alien to the preexistent Moral Order. These attempts are always followed by failure and, eventually, violence and death.   

In 2024, and as far as we can see today, the immense sacrifices of the last millennium of incremental scientific and human advancement, which collectively led to the modern world and greatest freedom, prosperity, and human well-being ever known, are teetering in the balance. The world’s ruling class – a cabal of politicians, the so-called “expert” bureaucratic class, billionaire oligarchs, and transnational business tycoons – are driving the all-out campaign to pound a stake in the democratic ideals of free societies. They wish to remake modernity on their terms, without God and his Moral Order.     

The new worldwide ruling class believes in serfdom, not citizenship.

These would-be rulers believe they alone have been called to build a utopian world order. They envision a worldwide government where functionality replaces individuality, and compulsion dresses up as security and freedom. And, most importantly, where the God of all Truth and Order is removed, crated up, and shipped off to join the torn-down statues, discarded books,  and “old” ideas that have already been exiled far away from inquiring minds.        

This is the great battlefield on which the war for civilizations’ existence is being fought and will be fought – and we can’t wait for our so-called leaders. We will have to fight this battle ourselves.