Prudentia Politica: “One word of truth,” Solzhenitsyn wrote, “outweighs the entire world.”

Rediscovering "Calling" Will Revitalize Church and Society

by Os Guinness

.... To me, one of the most appalling things in this country at the moment is the capitulation to the postmodern view of truth–the view that truth is relative, socially determined, and all a manner of human construction, and that any truth claim is really a disguised bid for power.
What proponents of this view do not realize is that when all claims to truth are reduced to forms of bids for power, you just open yourself up to power games. That is an incredibly dangerous, Nietzschean moment.
When Vaclav Havel and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn resisted the Soviet regime, they did so on the basis of truth. “One word of truth,” Solzhenitsyn wrote, “outweighs the entire world.” Or in the words of Havel, “Truth prevails for those who live in truth.” Many Western liberals applauded them at the time, but they do not have the same, strong concept of truth to do the job today.
People thought that postmodernism promised a brave new world of knowledge, but they are suddenly beginning to realize it is a highly manipulative and very dangerous world. And when you see the dangers, suddenly you see the enormous significance of the words of Jesus: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” There is no freedom without truth.