Miles Jackson wrote:
>Well, I'm ambivalent about the implied moral authority
>of the UN here. It's like female genital mutilation
>(or female circumcision): according to our principles,
>it's gross sexism, and I'm sure it violates the UN
>declaration. However, it is a practice that most
>women in these cultures actively participate in (they
>do the ritual cutting, and they consider it an
>important rite of passage into female adulthood).
>Is it morally right for people in Western societies
>to impose their values and principles on these
>cultures?
>
Please, please, please, please!!! When these women are butchered -- some
of them die from the procedure -- they are five years to seven years
old!!!! Please explain to me how a five year old "actively participates"
in an "important rite of passage into female adulthood."
>Part of me wants to say yes, sexism is bad, and the
>mutilation of these women is unconscionable.
>Another part of me says no, it is moral colonialism
>for me to impose my moral standards on people who
>are as committed to their beliefs as I am to mine.
>
We are too glib in speaking about "belief" --as if one is born into
these beliefs rather than their being the product of many years of
brainwashing, coercion, and lack of alternatives.
Yes, we all want to be loved and will do whatever it takes to be loved and accepted, including giving up our souls and letting our bodies be butchered -- but if there is a way forward, it must come from the recognition that this is a tragedy, not a piece of cultural happenstance.
How do you resolve problems that stem from cultural/historical pathologies? Surely, in the west, the "belief" that property is more important than life is also a pathology. And that belief is responsible for as great a degree of soul and body murder as the sexual butchery that organizes tribal life in Africa. This is not a trivial question and the solutions aren't easy. But I refuse, refuse, refuse to accept a cultural relativism that basically just sweeps everything under the rug.
Joanna
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