THE MODERN liberal asks the question, "How can we justify imposing our Western, Christian ideals on someone else?" It is commonplace to hear people ask, "Who are we to judge someone?" This sham of moral relativity leads to the degradation of the moral fiber of our society, penalizing anyone who dares to take a stand on moral grounds. Issues are no longer seen as black and white, but a thousand shades of gray.
From a very young age, children in the West are taught that it is not their place to judge anyone. We are taught that we must examine every situation and every action from all sides. Examining an issue from all sides is not an altogether bad thing, but it serves to remove any sense of an all-encompassing moral standard from the picture. Without this moral standard, we make it extremely difficult for someone to judge between right and wrong.
What must be understood is that every person in the world cannot define their own special belief system and view the world through their own personal moral values (or lack thereof). This idea will quickly point our society towards chaos. Without an underlying value system, a society simply ceases to function properly.
The effects of moral relativity are far-reaching. It is amazing how many people will stand up and say that they think abortion is wrong and they would never want to be a part of an abortion, but they don't want to limit another person's "right" to feel differently. This is an incredibly dangerous line of thought because the person openly admits that there is something morally wrong with abortion, but does not condemn it on a societal scale. Without this vital connection, the very moral fiber of the society can be rationalized away.
We are taught that everyone is equal and that neither the color of your skin nor your gender matters. Yet, we also use those very criteria to skew admissions to our University. Without an underlying moral ideal, it is easy enough to state that it is okay to discriminate in some circumstances, but not in others.
The current fad is to label people who take a stand on moral grounds as "intolerant." Why is being intolerant necessarily a bad thing? We cannot tolerate every person's whim and action even if it "doesn't harm anyone else." Immoral behavior in general degrades a society. If we remove the ability to rationalize what is right and wrong based on morality, we quickly limit our ability to impose any sort of restrictions on our society. It simply becomes a free for all.
With recent world events, America has been labeled a "new age imperialist," "forcing" our democracy and Western ideals on other nations. We are painted as the bad guy when liberating nations with oppressive societies. No one cried foul when we stopped Nazis from killing Jews during World War II. The people in charge of the Third Reich truly believed that a Jew was not human and deserved to die. This is no different than the public amputations in Afghanistan or the slavery in Sudan.Why is it that in this age we are condemned for intervening in another society when their actions are flat-out wrong?
One hears more complaints about Title IX varsity athletics for women and other comparatively small matters than are even mentioned about the way women are oppressed in other parts of the world. The same groups that worry about women playing in the Masters golf tournaments would be much better off working to stop the "honor killings" in many Muslim nations, where a woman can be killed freely for dishonoring her family. They would be better off working to end the forced abortions in China, or the oppression in Africa.
These heinous acts are wrong. We are not "forcing" ourselves on anyone, but it is a simple fact that it is wrong to enslave others, kill them for the honor of your family, or force them to have an abortion.
Unfortunately, in this world of moral relativity, it is not seen this way. It is surprising the number of people who would claim such awful practices are a "tradition" of that culture and we should not intervene. It is our duty, as a moral people, to work to end these crimes against the human race. I do not advocate mass imperialism, nor seek to defend the practice of the European colonialists in the past several hundred years, but I do seek to show we cannot ourselves be moral if we turn a blind eye to blatantly immoral practices that are all around us.
Moral relativity is indeed a dangerous thing. Without concrete social and moral values as a basis for our society, absolutely anything can be rationalized away. We must work to reintroduce morality into our society. There are some things that are absolutely wrong. We cannot allow ourselves to turn the world into a thousand shades of gray, letting every person do what they "feel is right." If America won't stand by its morality long enough to support what is right, then in the end, who will?
(Daniel Bagley's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at dbagley@cavalierdaily.com.)
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