The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture [Hardcover]

Robert H. Knight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

The vise-grip of moral relativism on American popular culture was not suddenly achieved in the 1960s. An incisive new book of unequaled historical scope studies this alluring but poisonous philosophy's hundred-year conquest of the institutions that shape the popular mind: art, music, architecture, film, and, of course, television.

Knight begins with a reminder of the imperfect but healthy society we inhabited before the ideology of self-gratification released the host of social pathologies from which we now suffer. He then guides the reader on a historical tour of the organs of modern popular culture, documenting the nearly unhindered march of relativism-led by a vanguard of decadent lites-through television, Hollywood, art, music, and architecture. This sustained assault on objective truth has brought us to the "Age of Consent," a morally obtuse world in which any act is validated by the mere consent of those immediately involved. Yet the Age of Consent's denial of truth, Knight argues, is unsustainable, and he concludes with a survey of the signs of incipient reaction that give hope for the future.

The Age of Consent opens with a foreword by Gary L. Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, whom the Weekly Standard has called "the most influential social conservative in Washington." As a study of moral relativism, The Age of Consent is unique in its broad historical treatment of the full array of transmitters of popular culture.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Robert H. Knight was a freshman at the University of Maine in 1970 when he first encountered the philosophy of relativism, in the form of French deconstructionist Michel Foucault. Eighty pages into Mr. Foucault's book "The Order of Things," Mr. Knights got so exasperated he flung the book across the room. "It annoyed me to no end," he says. "It sowed the seeds." The seeds of resentment against relativism took root, eventually bearing fruit in his new book, "The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and The Corruption of Popular Culture." Relativism is "a poisonous philosophy, the enemy of acquiring knowledge," says Mr. Knight, who is director of cultural studies at the Family Research Council.

"The Rolling Stones once said rape was just 'a kiss away'...When one standard is breached, another quickly follows. "Human nature is far more vulnerable to depravity than moral relativists and liberals have led us to believe." -- Robert Stacy McCain: The Washington Times, July 7, 1998

From the Publisher

ROBERT H. KNIGHT is the director of cultural studies at the Family Research Council, the preeminent think-tank devoted to social issues. He has held fellowships at the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution and was an editor and writer for the Los Angeles Times. A leading expert on the issue of public policy and marriage, he regularly appears on national television news programs and is frequently quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other national journals. Mr. Knight lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and children. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Spence Publishing Company; First edition (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890626058
• ISBN-13: 978-1890626051
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,841,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Relevant...But..., August 15, 2001

By 

"gregman2" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture (Hardcover)

Author Robert H. Knight, in his "Age of Consent," tackles a huge topic. Yet his historic survey-like description of popular culture's decline misses two key consequences of "Relativism," as a social ethos: (1) Comparativism (which neutrally treats all 'belief/opinion systems' as equally valid); and (2) Moral Legalism (which suggests that legal permissibility--and arguable legal versions of fact, however interpretive--is the ultimate moral authority. (If it's legal, or in a gray area, or undetectable...it's OK, so long as no real harm comes to anyone.) The author fails to expand on the two-edged sword predicament of Relativism, as both a media marketing necessity in a multi-ethnic America, and also the divisive foundation for potential Balkanization. A good intro to the subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and thought-provoking, March 6, 2007

By 

Robert Stacy Mccain (Hagerstown, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Age of Consent : The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture (Paperback)

If you want a genuinely serious and reflective examination of the philosophical roots of what has been called America's "culture war," you'd be hard-pressed to find a better choice than Knight's book. Knight is a Christian and a conservative, but I am sure even a secular liberal reader could benefit from reading Knight's critique. A lot of people who rant about "the Religious Right," it seems to me, are actually angry at politicians and TV preachers (or perhaps are motivated by some personal resentment of authority, or by a grievance against religion) and thus do not consider the deeper moral questions that Knight explores in "The Age of Consent." This book is eminently readable, told in a calm, sure and clear narrative style (Knight is a former L.A. newspaper editor). The reader is free to disagree with Knight's analysis, or with the answers he proposes to the problems he diagnoses, but this is a book that should not be merely ignored.

44 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An angry protest against cultural decay, with hopeful ending, August 23, 1998

By 

Laurence Jarvik "laurencejarvikonline" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture (Hardcover)

Bob Knight is angry with an America that has taken the wrong path, and he takes the cultural leaders to task for leading the country astray since the 1960s. High culture, low culture, and middlebrow are all misguided, according to this book, and only a return to American traditions will rescue American civilization from decay. In his final chapter he finds hope in grass-roots America, which Knight argues can revitalize the country's intellectual and cultural life, if given a chance. Written from a Christian perspective, it presents an important point of view which should be seriously considered by all Americans interested in cultural developments.