 Right and wrong are not purely relative ideas that our culture teaches us. Morality is based on a universal standard.
This is not to say that everything has to be either right or wrong; obviously, it doesn't matter whether one culture eats with their hands and another uses silverware. Similarly, it's fine to give the thumbs up sign in the U.S., while in much of the Middle East it's considered an obscene gesture. Differences like these aren't moral questions at all, just matters of cultural sensitivity.
Morality does become an issue when it comes to really serious issues
like slavery, the abuse of women, or murder. Can we Americans say that
it's wrong for Guatemalan plantation owners to hold their Mayan workers
in perpetual, slave-like servitude? Or if we say that it's wrong, can
we do anything about it? What about women's rights abuses and female
genital mutilation in Africa? And can Westerners legitimately criticize
the Sudanese government for the genocide in Darfur? After all, the
culture is very different.
I say that we can, and must, draw moral
lines in the world according to a standard that applies to everyone, as
best we can. Some people will say that this is simply arrogance.
However, in the world today there are really quite a lot of moral
standards already in place that totally transcend cultural differences.
These can be found, among other places, in the U.N.'s Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. So, according to international law,
slavery is wrong, regardless of the culture. The same is said about
"cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," which seems to speak to the
issue of female genital mutilation. As for Darfur, "Everyone has the
right to life, liberty and security of person." Government-sponsored
massacres clearly violate this right.
People make mistakes, and in
the end even the most influential culture is just a bunch of people.
The culture in the antebellum American South said that slavery was
fine; the culture was wrong. Understanding and respect for other
societies are increasingly important in today's world, and rightly so,
but no culture, not even our own, is morally infallible.
Reprinted from The Bobcat, The Lansing Student Newspaper, with permission
The Bobcat is distributed at Gimme! Lansing, LCLC, Lansing Recreation Office,
Lansing Post Office, Lansing High School Office, and The Pit Stop
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