Sometimes water is so thin, and sometimes it’s thick. But it’s always watery.
You know why this is so interesting? I do.
It’s related to something I hate. Passive relativism. People come into schools with this idea of relativity, where everything is just a matter of perpective, there are no absolutes, and a “to each his own” belief system that applies everywhere, all the time. This is very common in the academy.
“It is wrong to prevent women from going to school.”
“That’s just your opinion! Stop imposing your culture on others!”
Sounds… tolerant. And we espouse tolerance, don’t we?
You go to a small village in central Africa and witness an ancient practice: the burning off of the clitoris of young girls. It’s been done for thousands of years. You see the girl. You see the man with the red-hot iron. She is panicking and screaming already, and two other men hold her down, legs open.
You are a visitor here, a guest.
What do you do in this situation?
Let’s say the situation passes, whether you intervened or not, and you are no longer there. But you know it continues every week, every year, every girl. Now what do you do?
- If you believe it’s wrong and you can do nothing, you are lying to yourself: anyone is capable of doing something, at all times, everywhere. You are choosing not to intervene.
- If you you believe it is not wrong, then OK. You are an enemy of mine.
- If you believe it is wrong, but since you recognize that the village elders do not believe it’s wrong, and you do not think it’s right to interfere with “culture” or cultural practice, then OK. I disagree with your choice and if we are in the same place, you will watch me intervene. If you try to stop me, you will be my enemy.
It the case that some things are wrong, everywhere on earth, regardless of what culture espouses it and ritualizes and believes it to be a good thing. I include the torture of children in that list.
For things in this category, there is no issue of perpective to take into account. There is no relativism. There is no imperialism. Slavery is wrong. Ownership of other humans is wrong. Physical abuse is wrong. There’s no cultural perspective involved here. It’s not about culture. It’s about people.
Try to torture a person in front of me, and I will stop you. We can discuss it afterwards, unless I have to kill you in order to protect other people from you. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing it, I don’t care what it represents, I don’t care what god you believe in. Mutilating children is wrong anywhere, any time, ever. I will impose this idea upon you as long as you oppose it, and you will lose.
To everyone in the academy who stands and watches when great injustices and disgusting sub-human acts occur, happy to describe them and document them for later consideration instead of doing something about it, fuck you. You’re an enemy too.
