Thursday, June 22, 2006

Post Number 100


For this special occasion (my 100th post), I would like to share a cartoon that takes a little poke at the concept of Moral Relativism. Consider the 'torture' of detainees at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. Now think of the real torture of those two American troops by members of Al-Qaida. Isn't there a moral difference between the borderline torture at one and the real, brutal torture by the other?

What about the difference between women's rights in our culture, and women's rights in Islamic culture? Are they morally equivalent?

What about the freedom of religion, association, and speech that we've got, compared to the states of fear in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, etc.?

How about our social safety net, where even welfare recipients can have cable TV and refrigerators, as compared to the crushing famine engulfing North Korea's 'people's republic'?

I could go on....

2 comments:

Rocketman1200 said...

thanks buddy

Rocketman1200 said...

Rumpus, to your points:

Despite the possibility that you're context-dropping with that quote, here's my rebuttal:

Bill O'Reilly is a pundit, not an actual policy administrator. However, the policies of islamic fundamentalists are quite real, and quite enforced.

O'Reilly is after ratings. The Islamic extremists are after social control.

I fail to see how my moral comparisons on that post are anything close to ambiguous.