Archive: Opinions

Guest EditorialRight 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.

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