Cultural relativism and its more seemingly palatable multiculturalism have lowered standards and redefined values to such depths that not only are all cultures and beliefs deemed equally valid, they seem to have taken on personas of their own blurring the distinction between individuals and beliefs (whether theirs or imputed).
As a result, concepts such as rights, equality, respect and tolerance, which were initially raised vis-à-vis the individual, are now more and more applicable to culture and religion and often take precedence over real live human beings.
This is why any criticism and ridiculing of or opposition to beliefs, cultures, religions, gods and prophets are being deemed racism, disrespecting, inciting hatred and even violence against those deemed believers. Moreover, the social inclusion of people into society has come to solely mean the inclusion of their beliefs, sensibilities, concerns and agendas and nothing more.
The above is particularly applicable to and spearheaded by Islam and political Islam as it is a religion in state power like in Iran or vying for political power in the likes of Britain and Canada. Cultural relativism has become the channel through which it and its apologists have sought to deflect criticism of its inhumane nature and at the same time undermine the very fabric of society here and elsewhere.
Needless to say, cultural relativists have it all wrong.
The distinction between humans and their beliefs is of crucial significance here. It is the human being who is sacred, worthy of the highest respect and rights and so on and so forth not his or her beliefs.
It is the human being who is meant to be equal not his or her beliefs.
Of course, people have the right to their beliefs no matter how absurd they may seem but that is a different matter. Having the right to a belief, culture, or religion does not mean that the belief or culture or religion must be respected or that those who disagree, oppose or choose to mock said beliefs must refrain from doing so because it is unacceptable to believers. (As an aside, given that much is unacceptable to the Islamists – including holding hands and dancing to music - there wouldn't be much left to say or do if they had their way.)
The demand of cultural relativists for 'sensitivity' and 'responsibility' (whilst thoughtfully reminding us that we have the right to mock and criticise - at least for now - in the west) are savvy attempts at actually restricting expression on and opposition to religion and culture and its adverse effects on people's lives. After all, cultural relativism is brisk business for the many self-appointed cultural and religious 'leaders' working hand in hand with the state.
Please read it yourselves.
Cross posted at Liberty and Justice
1 comment:
“All narratives are of equal worth”
- this is the malevolent mantra of Postmodernism/Cultural Relativism in our (taxpayer-funded) universities.
Postmodernism is the anti-rational, anti-Western, culturally self-loathing pseudo-philosophy which permeates academia.
Postmodernism is a self-induced cancer which allows the alien virus of Islam to spread like a secondary infection throughout body of Western Civilization.
Postmodernist moonbats regard Mo's barbaric dark-age death-cult as a 'narrative' of equal value to the products of Judeo-Christian culture . In fact Islam may be a superior narrative because it is the product of victimhood.
I would strongly advise Infidels who wish to understand the threat that Islam poses to our civilization not only to study and critique Islam itself, but to understand and work against the suicidal and culturicidal self-loathing of Postmodernism.
“All narratives are of equal worth” - the PoMo dogma that dominates university arts, humanities and social studies departments. All narratives are socially constructed by dominant power groups - dead white males and Joooooooz being the usual suspects.
Postmodernism hasn't made much headway in science, engineering or mathematics departments, for reasons I'll come to in a moment.
Neither is postmodernism taken seriously by most philosophers, because it is in effect self-contradictory. "All narratives are of equal worth" So, optimistically all narratives should be equally true.
Unfortunately for the moonbats, diverse narratives contradict each other, so to maintain equality we must conclude that all narratives are equally false. However postmodernism is itself a narrative, so "all narratives are of equal worth" is as equally true/false as "some narratives are better than others". This is a variant of the old Cretan Paradox - 'Everything I say is a lie'. Pursue this line of reasoning far enough and the result will be insanity and/or left-wing politics. This spoof site (a postmodern essay generator) really hits the bullseye .. http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo
Some years ago there was an attempt by pomo moonbat Marxist sociologists to protray science as a socially constructed narrative (constructed by all those Joooooooish Nobel prize winners with the poor old Muslim-victims being so underepresented ) . The logical outcome of this was if your culture said it was possible to float in the air then the socially-constructed Joooodeo-Christian (Newton and Einstein) laws of gravity would not apply to you as you stepped out of a sixth floor window.
This irrationalist obscurantist attack on science was debunked by the famous Sokal hoax, and the moonbats have not been back since... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_Affair
However the university faculties where logical thinking may be more of a handicap than a help greatly outnumber the science/philosophy/engineering faculties. There has been a vast proliferation of Departments of Indefinite Studies, Post-Colonialist Awareness, Multicultural Assertion, etc etc.
Western culture is 'despised' because some aspects of it ARE DIFFICULT TO MASTER. Thus sneeering cultural self-loathing is used as a cover for intellectual inadequacy.
In this dumbed down 'academic' environment, is it any wonder that Islam, which would have been laughed to scorn by previous generations, is now regarded as a subject worthy of study in its own right as a valid narrative, rather than being seen as a primitive cult of interest primarily to the anthropologist and historian? Of course Edward Said has a lot to answer for, coming along at just the right time to exploit the rise in postmodernism and post-colonial guilt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said
Postmodernism is the fatal crack in the intellectual structure of Western civilisation through which the virus of Islam enters.
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