The Age of Consent (book)

The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture is a book by Robert H. Knight published in 1998, with a foreword by Gary Bauer. It criticises modern cultural relativism, arguing that "Relativism is the cultivation of ignorance; the gateway to nihilism; a false view of reality constructed by know-nothings for know-nothings; an extremely efficient vehicle for evil, whose existence it denies."

In Washington Times review (July 7, 1998) Robert Stacy McCain describes how the book "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. [Knight] 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 elites-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."

Michael Medved, the film critic and author of Hollywood vs. America said the book "offers an instructive guide to the deeply dysfunctional ideas behind our current dilemma."

Robert Knight is the director of cultural studies at the Family Research Council, a social studies think-tank, has held fellowships at the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution and was an editor and writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Editions

• The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture, Spence Publishing Company, ISBN 1-890626-05-8
• Human Events Review
• Academia.org review