An Open Letter to the Left on Ethical Relativism
by Marty Lewinter
The notion that there are no absolute truths, when applied to ethics, yields the erroneous idea that one should not pass judgment on the behavior of others. This is most convenient when one wishes to adopt a position of neutrality vis-à-vis a dictatorship (North Korea), a government that practices genocide (Rwanda), a theocracy (Iran), etc.
In fact, man is a rational animal and reason dictates how he should live. A reasoning being deals with others through trade and uses force only in self-defense. Recognizing the importance of division of labor, cooperation with others, love, and friendship, he establishes government to ensure that his life, liberty and property—which are his by right—are protected against encroachment by those who abandon the path of rational self-interest and resort to unreasonable methods involving force and/or fraud. A society based on anything other than the protection of individual rights is immoral. Absolutely! So don't be afraid to judge:
- Cuba and North Korea, for example, have illegitimate governments.
- Cannibalism is wrong. Slavery is wrong. Tyranny is wrong.
- The Holocaust (and all other holocausts, whether based on religion, skin color, ethnicity, tribalism, economic class, etc.) was hideously evil and must never be explained using ridiculous arguments that it was caused by such factors as the Versailles Treaty, economic hardship in post-World War I Germany, punitive reparations, or other such excuses.
- Communism is an abomination—and is riddled with serious philosophical errors, such as determinism and dialectic materialism. Add to that a collection of ludicrous economic theories, such as the labor theory of value, and you have a recipe for disaster. The twentieth century regimes of Soviet Russia, Red China, Cuba, North Korea, and Cambodia slaughtered tens of millions in their horribly misguided attempts to create a worker's paradise. They didn't yield a "worker's paradise." Surprise!
But who are we to judge these totalitarian societies? The answer: We are Americans! We have a (relatively) free market. We have elections (even if we often elect fools). We have freedom of speech (even when we suffer fools). We have property rights (even though some of us have more property than others). We have a peaceful transition of power in Washington every four or eight years. We have churches and synagogues on the same block. Our ethnic groups do not kill each other on a daily basis. In fact, we have a fair amount of racial, religious, and ethnic integration. We do not keep our population in captivity. We do not dread the midnight knock on the door by secret police. We have habeas corpus.
So let's keep on judging. And let's not forget to judge our own society, with an eye toward preserving and protecting its moral foundation: freedom. Ethical relativism is a debilitating doctrine. Get rid of it.
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