Unfathomably Foul

2 responses to “Unfathomably Foul”

1. 

   Robert

   November 3, 2008

   Mark Steyn (I think in the introduction to his book "America Alone") wrote:>>This book isn’t an
   argument for more war, more bombing, or more killing, but for more
   will. In a culturally confident age, the British in India were faced
   with the practice of “suttee” — the tradition of burning widows on the
   funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was
   impeccably multicultural: “You say that it is your custom to burn
   widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive,
   we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral
   pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow
   your custom. And then we will follow ours.”India today is
   better off without suttee. If you don’t agree with that, if you think
   that’s just dead-white-male Eurocentrism, fine. But I don’t think you
   really believe that.<<

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2. 

   Geoff

   November 3, 2008

   Robert, of course I don’t believe that… Moral Relativism is a false doctrine. I can understand that an Australian Aborigine might find a Witchety grub delicious, but that I would feel somewhat squeamish about trying it. However, that is not the same as saying that I can understand a Somalian is morally correct in his/her lights in practising female circumcision, whilst I would find it morally reprehensible. Unlike Mad Mel and others of her ilk, I don’t conflate liberalism with relativism… Stephen Law covers this argument very well in his book The War for Children’s Minds.  

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