Red Square wrote:This brings us to "speciism." It claims that humans shouldn't be superior to animals only because they have reason. All animals are equal with humans.
Now the two ideas, cultural relativism and speciism, come together: the progs see Muslims not as fully human, but rather as part-animals, who can only exist in a special habitat that is different from the rest of non-Muslim humans. The said habitat involves tyranny, oppression, chauvinism, irrationality, and murdering of the Jews and other non-believers as a form of human sacrifice to please their god. And that is OK, because that's what being a Muslim means. Destroying that habitat will endanger the "Muslim species." Yet, at the same time, these people must enjoy the same rights as the rest of humanity: all cultures are equal.
Isn't such an approach an ultimate insult to Muslims - at least those who are not savages and have the ability to think rationally?
Hey Boss,
First, please forgive me if my response is not completely articulate - I'm sick again, and probably shouldn't post with such a high fever cause really, I might be a bit delirious... It wouldn't be the first time. That said, I must admit to being torn over this entire thing. As a multi-hyphenate in the form of a Female-Cetacean(Dolphin)-Kanadistanjian-Jewish-Zen-Buddhist-of-Russian-descent (that doesn't cover it all but will do for now... oh! I forgot Zionist and Survivalist! sorry)... I am truly torn... the Muslims... or seemingly most Muslims, want to push Israel into the sea... as a Jew and a Zionist, this upsets me... as a Dolphin, I can't argue... I like the sea and although there's lots of herring in Israel and many Jewish neighbourhoods world-wide, it's pickled and requires rye bread, which gets soggy in the sea... and dolphins like to catch it ourselves... fresh, y'know... I have no problem with speciism to a point - I believe it should be limited to those species that show theory of mind (what some would call self-awareness which is the pre-condition for empathy - a quality which many humans are not even capable of) ... Dolphins, of course, as well as elephants, and many whale species... Gorillas and Orangs, just as examples... I don't view it as cultural relativism as much as simply trying not to wipe out endangered species which I value. Cows are neither self-aware nor endangered, and they're tasty. And although they aren't known as a species with theory of mind, a smart dog can be said to have the moral sense of a three-year-old.
Similarly, I am horrified at what is done to women in many Muslim countries and cultures, and yet even as I write this, a Montreal Afghani-Kanadistanjian mother is once again facing charges in court for attempting to stab her teenaged daughter to death for staying out all night with her friends and walking around in public (in her words, like a prostitute), and socializing with boys. For every woman who wants to escape the bonds of Islam that make them less than human and allow them to be treated worse than broodmares, it seems there is another who is so inculcated in the cultural norms that seem pervasive within Muslim countries and which allow mothers to value their own daughters' lives below that of their families' honour...
I found our friend Jeffrey Imm's (think I got the name right) post sweet but woefully innocent, and not in a good way, and sadly, from experience, 'a touch' simple. It would be very nice to believe that all the world's ills could be solved if we were all just nice and respected one-and-other... Sadly, it only takes one nuclear Iran to screw it up for everyone and experience has taught me that just because I want something to be so, doesn't make it so. The whole human rights vs. human wrongs riff is catchy, but ignores the fact that 'human rights' in the sense of moral or legal entitlements are simply not the same thing as right vs. wrong, in the sense of right as defined as morally correct, just, or honourable. As you correctly pointed out, usually Hallmark™ sentiments are a bit shorter if you want them to fit on a card, but it'd make a catchy card that would probably sell well in the UN gift shop or on any product on which Ghandi is also quoted extensively... That's right... "Be the change you want to see in the world" mugs... you can find them in the same aisle as "Human rights, not human wrongs!" mouse pads... I think his entire post is summed up better in the lyrics of En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" (and the rest will follow)... you could dance to it, and it cost less than a mouse pad.
And yet, as a Zen-Buddhist, there is always the urge to reduce such complex and ultimately life-endangering threats to their simplest form... If we only live just and respectful lives, creating as much good in the world as possible while reducing evil to as great as an extent as we can, we will have met our moral requirements for a good life. This, of course, ignores the basic fact that we only have control over our own behaviour and others don't share this belief. Humans are complex, yet stupid, on the whole, and even the most evolved of cultures gives over very easily to a mob mentality which allows the individual to abrogate personal responsibility while 'just following orders' or worse, to give in to emotional justifications, rather than rational ones... whether this translates into a mob burning down a KFC and killing a foreign dignitary simply because they are angry about a repulsive video but don't share the same beliefs in free speech as the country in which is was produced, thereby blaming the country and its fundamental principles rather than the individual who actually produced it, OR, it leads the majority of a country to give over to the warm and fuzzies they get from patting themselves on the back for voting for someone based on skin colour rather than ability, having collectively fallen under the spell of pretty words that make them feel good but don't stand up to critical scrutiny.
However we look at it, I think the lesson to be taken away is that no matter who the message comes from, spin is spin, and people are easily made dizzy. And dizzy people like the feeling, whether it allows them to abrogate their responsibility to think critically rather than emotionally, or gives them license in their minds to join the mob and justifies their destructive impulses. Either way, the spin has succeeded...
As you so aptly once wrote, "Dizzy with success"...
SMO...
