I don’t like rewatching movies or TV shows, no matter how much I like them or how good I think they are. Except for “Dumb & Dumber.” I watch that way too often. Sorry, I guess we all have an inner 12-year-old locked inside of us.
That means I also don’t like re-reading books. In fact, I think I can say there are only four books I’ve read more than once (cover to cover) in my life. And none of them are fiction. I just don’t like re-watching or re-reading something when I know how it ends.
So when I say there is one book I re-read every single year, that should tell you something. What, exactly? That I think it’s worth it. Like, really worth it. That the wisdom included in its pages is so essential I can’t go without it for more than 365 days.
This book is an old book. It’s not long. It’s actually quite short. It takes me about an hour to read each time. And each time I come away wiser, more resolved, and strengthened. To do what? To engage in culture. To fight back—in wise ways—against a society that tells us there is no objective truth and that “your truth” is all you need.
That’s relativism. And that’s bullsh**.
Sorry if I offended anyone there. Go ahead and unsubscribe. But I think a curse word from time to time is appropriate, and I think relativism is so dangerous that it warrants a curse word.
But the pull toward relativism is strong. It’s everywhere. On TV, in movies, on the Tikitty Tokky. We are constantly told that our feelings are what’s real, that whatever we want to be true can be true. If you feel like a cat these days, well, then you are a cat. I’m going to say it again: That’s bullish**. (Once again, I think people thinking they are actually cats calls for an appropriate curse word.)
But that’s where we are as a society. And it comes down to one word, one idea, one concept: relativism.
Relativism is the idea that there is no objective truth. On the off chance that there is, it says, it’s at least not knowable. But in general we—you, me, the 3-year-old child—decides what is true for each of us. That poses quite the problem, though: What if “my truth” is different than “your truth”? What happens then?
I’ll tell you what happens: we get people thinking and acting like they are cats.
I think society’s problems can be boiled down to that one idea. Not the cats, but kinda the cats. It’s the idea that there is no objective truth. Yes, all our problems can be boiled down to sin, but I think you know what I mean here. Sin would say there is no truth. In fact, the serpent in the Garden tried to get Eve to doubt truth. “Did God really say that?” In essence, he was telling her, “Isn’t the truth really what you think it is?”
In some ways, then, relativism was the first lie ever told. And it’s a lie that continues to be told to this day.
The book I re-read every year is an assault on relativism written by one of the wisest men to ever put pen (or typewriter) to paper. I have a tattoo of him, even. Well, not of him I guess, but of one of the most popular things he wrote about. I told you, I’m a big fan of this book.
OK, sorry to keep you waiting. Here it is. Stick around after I reveal it because I’m going to share some of the most important quotes from it so you know what I mean.
The book is titled…
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