Quote: (03-17-2012 06:42 AM)ao85 Wrote:
Well then we have an even bigger problem if the society we're dealing with is using a moral system from the 7th century. Human civilization, generally, has been making progress in the moral sphere and it's not too unreasonable to say that we think that people should have basic rights, regardless of what cultural context they come from.
Cultural relativism will be the death of the West. If there's no right and wrong, then anything can be justified.
While I see your point, the problem here is that cultural relativism is unavoidable.
The fact is that what is "right and wrong" or "backward", in the context of this and some other posts in this thread, is often determined from a western perspective. We are taking western standards of morality and applying them to very foreign contexts.
We cannot underestimate the significance of this when its comes to how others will perceive western critiques of their culture. Like our own, their rules took thousands of years to form, and have persisted for that long as well. They believe wholeheartedly in these rules, and cling as strongly to them as Americans do to the idea of democracy and limited government (more so, even, since these foreign rules are often much older than the United States itself).
They're about as likely to adopt western morality as Americans are to adopt Sharia law at the federal level. This has to be made clear-not everyone agrees with the west, and many (perhaps even most) of those who currently do not simply never will.
Getting online and creating petitions will not change this.