Why Johnny Can't Think

Unlike Soviet glasnost, American openness is indigenous to its system because the free inquiry into the truth was deemed the most important attribute of a free people by American founders. But in recent decades, this same openness has led to a steady, but deadly, erosion of that truth's certainty, which in turn has led to a kind of cultural nihilism, albeit a trendy one. Briefly, the beliefs underlying contemporary American nihilism run as follows: Granting all opinions equal status, the true one counts no more than the false one. Indeed, the belief only in opinions admits of no truth at all. And the fear of being wrong is replaced by the fear of being right and appearing to be an ideologue.