Idol smashing

Fox's new reality show has become a hit by being judgmental and encouraging the audience to set standards | Gene Edward Veith

For decades, the myth of relativism—that what is true for you may not be true for me—has paralyzed Americans' intelligence, ethics, and religion.

Lately, though, events seem to be conspiring against the relativists. The popping of the stock market bubble, resulting in the disappearance of billions of dollars, seems to have the uncontrollable quality of an objective fact, rather than being the personal construction of the investor's brain. Positive thinking does not seem to make it rain in this summer's drought-plagued states, nor does it keep the fires from burning.

Moral issues too have a sudden black-and-white quality. Child abductions and murders really do seem to be evil acts, in a way that resists appeals to "alternative values." The dignity of the rescued miners—and their rescuers—seems "good," in an objective way that many people had forgotten.