Just as Paul Johnson began Modern Times with the opening shot of “moral relativity,” Allan Bloom famously began 1987′s The Closing of the American Mind by noting, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”
A quarter century later, it’s come to this (graphic image at link, but it’s already been used as a Time magazine cover last year):
“Moments Of Startling Clarity” Dr. Stephen L. Anderson
Advertisement“The picture is horrific. Aisha’s beautiful eyes stare hauntingly back at you above the mangled hole that was once her nose. Some of my students could not even raise their eyes to look at it. I could see that many were experiencing deep emotions.
But I was not prepared for their reaction.
I had expected strong aversion; but that’s not what I got. Instead, they became confused. They seemed not to know what to think. They spoke timorously, afraid to make any moral judgment at all. They were unwilling to criticize any situation originating in a different culture.They said, “Well, we might not like it, but maybe over there it’s okay.” One student said, “I don’t feel anything at all; I see lots of this kind of stuff .”
Another said (with no consciousness of self-contradiction), “It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
“While we may hope some are capable of bridging the gap between principled morality and this ethically vacuous relativism, it is evident that a good many are not. For them, the overriding message is “never judge, never criticize, never take a position.”
In 1984, when Winston could see that 2+2=5, and couldn’t decide if O’Brien was holding up four or five fingers (recreated in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s famous “There! are! four! lights!” moment, along with Picard later admitting he was willing to see anything his tormenter wanted him to see by then), he had been officially broken as a man. We’ve reached the limits of multiculturalism when a group of kids can stare a photo of a woman with her nose sliced off and reply blankly at the horror, “It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
And yet his teachers (other than Anderson, assuming he’s still employed) will have no problem making this young tike make all sorts of judgements about his own culture — all of them wrapped in a black armband.
The students would have to disagree with Lincoln that slavery is wrong. The antebellum South, after all, was a very different culture with a peculiar way of life. Hitler and Stalin were from cultures foreign to our own, so these half educated nitwits must see no basis on we might make judgments. Some people just have gulags. They’re like that.
I wonder if they would maintain such elevated detachment if asked to comment on, say, Catholic views on abortion or gay marriage. I suspect they would find those views backward, narrow and wrong, wrong, wrong! Tolerance, after all, only goes so far.
“I wonder if they would maintain such elevated detachment if asked to comment on, say, Catholic views on abortion or gay marriage. I suspect they would find those views backward, narrow and wrong, wrong, wrong! Tolerance, after all, only goes so far.”
Perfect. I am going to shamelessly steal that argument!
Forget abortion or gay marriage, just tell one of ‘em you don’t believe in global warming or increasing taxes on the rich. The complete sentence should read “It’s wrong to judge other cultures when it’s inconvenient to your political narrative.”
“It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
Ah, but I think we can all agree, my young friend, that *they’re judging you*. Enough to want to kill you (or apparently maim you pretty badly). Now ask yourself: is that wrong?
Better question: ever heard of a stolen concept?
Ed, good catch, multiculturalism is all about power. Nothing more, nothing less. The power resides in the elites (who hate and loathe their own people who are after all a threat) and make it pretty clear who is the “Alpha Male” in the situation and who is not.
And that is the key to their success. Dominance displays go over huge with **certain** segments of the female voting population, i.e. White female professionals who having most needs met in Maslow’s hierarchy want/need emotional stimulation. This is basically the foundation of Saturday Night Live, John Stewart and the Daily Show, the late night guys, and MSNBC, CNN, and the nightly news broadcasts. Dominance displays to show who is up and who is down.
Newt Gingrich rose soley on his ability to repudiate and turn back MSM dominance displays. That is why people who found him completely lacking, have latched onto him, in the Republican Party. They too want someone who can stand up and punch back dominance wise.
To not judge is to not think.