Pacificism at any price: the moral defects of cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is pacificism at any cost, or, in other words, submission
Cultural relativism is a new-age belief that morality is not absolute, thus all cultures, regardless of the harm they may inflict, must be respected, and tolerated. This is because the proponents of cultural relativism view any and all criticism and judgement of another culture as dangerous; that it will pave the way for state-sponsored persecution and genocide. At a point in history where being tolerant - often without a regard to what is being tolerated - is perceived as a rite of passage, cultural relativism stands as both a religious and ideological pillar in contemporary society.
Cultural relativism establishes that there is no objective morality; that human beings are a cluster of atoms spinning through the cold darkness of space. Another point to add is that cultural relativism can only be adopted by those who have lost faith in the culture they were born into – a phenomenon that has snatched the consciousness of much of the Western world.
In trying to challenge the dogmatic religious fundamentalism that had choked the continent for so long, some Enlightenment figures declared that there was no universal value system to begin with. Then two destructive World Wars shattered the trust of millions that European culture was something to be proud of, given the totalitarian horrors it had produced. The old customs and traditions, being associated with the past, were stripped bare, until the logos of Western life was pushed to the brink of extinction.
In the vacuum that lay in the ruins, the culture of ‘anything goes’ sprang up. Free love and hyper consumerism became the aim of the game. This new order required certain changes to modern man’s psyche in order to function, with one such alteration being cultural relativism. A populace with liberal attitudes, which had its origins in the Christian faith of ‘turning the other cheek’, along with mass immigration to Western democracies, helped fuel its adoption. The principles (liberty, justice, reason, and so forth) which constructed the Western world – a conglomerate of nations in which millions wished to migrate to, and, in the case of East Germany, many died trying to reach – were left to rot through neglect. Who would be willing to defend and promote the civilisation that birthed Hitler and Stalin?
Nowadays, the religious conviction held towards cultural relativism is implicitly accepting of the same horrors it so desperately swerves to avoid. One recent example is Joe Biden’s comments towards China, a totalitarian state under the forever rule of the Communist Party, who have been in power since 1949, which engages in a level of ethnic cleansing not seen since the days of Nazi Germany.
When speaking of his recent conversation with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, Biden commented that the human rights abuses in China, from the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China’s western province of Xinjiang to the annexation and subjugation of Hong Kong, were only ‘different norms.’ Although Biden is the most gaffe prone President since Kennedy trying to speak German, the attitudes of the modern era, including vast swathes of the President’s own party, suggests that what was said was not said in error.
What a sorry state of affairs this is. In being paranoid of sowing the seeds of another fascist dictatorship through the defence of Western values, cultural relativism maintains that the totalitarianism states – of China and the world over – are due to mere cultural and geographical differences. Cultural relativism is pacificism at any cost, or, in other words, submission.
