{"id":2579,"date":"2012-10-24T00:05:52","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T07:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=2579"},"modified":"2012-10-23T21:26:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T04:26:45","slug":"universals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2012\/10\/24\/universals\/","title":{"rendered":"Universals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some commentators have suggested that since our ideas of human rights are strictly western concepts, it is an example of both ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism for us to insist that eastern nations \u2014 for instance China \u2014 be bound by them.<\/p>\n

\tI find such an argument difficult to swallow. I simply cannot fathom the legitimacy of such \u201cethical diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIf morality is not absolute and universal, along the lines of the laws of physics (and perhaps even, in some sense, a consequence of those laws), then I am at a loss as to how we could legitimately question the behavior of Nazi-era Germans who murdered millions of Jews. I doubt that any of those who suggest Chinese behavior is acceptable would agree that killing Jews is a good thing. Consequently, I would suggest that they don\u2019t really believe the argument they\u2019re making, and in fact that they haven\u2019t thought through the implications of their suggestion.<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019ve even read some who try to excuse the treatment of Christians in China by arguing that Christianity is a foreign imposition on that ancient land and an example of western imperialism, so of course the Chinese are going to react harshly. And besides, in the past, some Christians were persecutors and oppressors. <\/p>\n

\tYet in the west, aren\u2019t we supposed to be open to new ideas and accept cultural diversity? So it\u2019s good for us to accept foreign ideas, but we can\u2019t expect the Chinese to be this enlightened? Doesn\u2019t this strike you as patronizing at its worst? Plus there\u2019s the ethical problem of it all: the Christians somehow deserve to be persecuted because Christianity isn\u2019t a native Chinese faith and besides, some of the Christian\u2019s ancestors might have been bad people? I think I detect some injustice here, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\tYet, China deserves censure for its treatment of Tibet and the Dali Lama.<\/p>\n

\tI would agree that it does, but I\u2019m mightily annoyed at the inconsistency and shallow thinking evidenced by certain pundits who will decry the treatment of one group at the same time they accept the persecution of another, simply because one group seems more \u201cdeserving\u201d than another.<\/p>\n

\tFrankly, if one group is being persecuted, it might as well be me being persecuted. If I don\u2019t think that way, then I run the risk of falling into the trap attributed to Martin Ni\u00acemoeller:<\/p>\n

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn\u2019t speak up because I wasn\u2019t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn\u2019t speak up because I wasn\u2019t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn\u2019t speak up because I wasn\u2019t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn\u2019t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Some commentators have suggested that since our ideas of human rights are strictly western concepts, it is an example of both ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism for us to insist that eastern nations \u2014 for instance China \u2014 be bound by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2581,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions\/2581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}