I feel the U.S. government has a thin line to walk when addressing violations of human rights and inequality in other countries but I feel we should be very active in trying to address these issues.
We must allow for "cultural relativism", but pure cultural relativism is only culturally-specific beliefs. Cultures have admittedly been wrong on issues of human rights and have corrected themselves. Therefore we have to allow for objective truth or "moral realism" and still be able to say what is inherently right or wrong within a culture. Cultures disagree but all cultures share some common values in order to exist as a harmonious civilization. Human rights and equality are two of those values.
I believe once we cross the line of basic core values for harmonious existence is when we start treading into ethnocentrism and neocolonialism territory. This is not a black and white area. It fades into shades of gray and requires careful bilateral communication and agreement between all parties that will be affected.
But every individual, culture, and geography of this plant are unique and diverse . So global inequality is inherent and natural to the extent of natural characteristics and resources. For example the Middle East and Africa are rich in oil and diamonds, whereas the U.S. is rich in technology and agriculture. Inequality is natural. Where it becomes unnatural is when power, greedy, selfishness, and politics dictates how the worlds resources are distributed. So there will always be HDCs and LDCs. That is not the issue. This issue is how morally and ethically responsible will the world be in sharing its resources.
We must be careful not to forget that sociology and philosophy, in this case morality and ethics, are identical twins. To separate the two creates poverty, famine, illiteracy, disease, greed, wars, and world divide. But to keep the two joined in their natural state promotes wellness, unity, education, nourishment, and sharing.
I feel this way because it is the innate nature of all human beings to love and care for one another.
http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/GlobalWealthArticleHicks.pdf
I like how you addressed cultural relativism by saying we all share common values, but the professor did say that Human Rights is thought to be more of a "western" concept and not shared by all. I'm not sure what you meant by saying that Human Rights are shared by all though? Although as always your language and speech are A+! =^^=
ReplyDelete"I feel this way because it is the innate nature of all human beings to love and care for one another. "
ReplyDeleteI really like that you said that because I can agree with the fact that it is our nature to try to help one another. It is unfortunate that many people usually put this aside and let selfish acts overrule the essential act of helping one another that leads to neocolonialism of other countries.
WoW GreG!! You have made great valid points. The part that I really appreciate is how you think that the world is selfish in how it divides up its resources. That is what makes this world a mess! It's always me me me and us us us and our people this and our people that. No one wants to see any one other culture excel before or faster than him. This isn't agood spirit to have as a human race! Nice work!
ReplyDelete