Ethnocentrism as Cultural Relativism

This blog is written those those who who typically call them selves conservatives. However the context is applicable to anyone who believes that culture has any inherent virtue. It is simply directed to "conservatives" because they are in general less honest about their moral relativity and collectivism. Where as the liberal more often will openly embrace these terms the conservative will shun them with his words but embrace them with his actual values. This is due to ethnocentrism, which is nothing more then a blind form of cultural relativism.

We will Begin with concepts and abstractions and then apply them to our lives and culture.

Anyone who believes that culture defines virtue, meaning, and/or ethics is both a cultural relativist and a collectivist (and on top of that you could probably add ultimately a nihilist). When we clearly make this definition of cultural relativism it is clear that the ethnocentrist is just that. I suppose it can be argued that one can take the ethnocentrist position because they believe their culture is the most moral, but even in this case the individual is not saying "freedom is good" but they are saying "America is good" which is to put the culture above the principle. This is nothing more then subjugation of truth to the collective. Simply because a culture values something good it is not a reason to praise the culture, ones loyalty must remain in what is good and or true. To take the position of a ethnocentrist or a cultural relativist is to claim that a collective abstraction is more important then an individuals relationship with truth.

The hidden cultural relativism of conservatives can be seen every where if one takes a moment to look. Only a cultural relativist minded person would use the argument of "If you don't believe in X then you are not patriotic". This person is not concerned with true or false, they are simply saying that if you don't believe in X then you aren't part of their club that has some kind of moral high ground based on nothing but culture. As if the word patriotic can possibly mean anything after hundreds of years of changing. As if Flags and National Anthems have some kind of inherent value.

Observe how it is always those conservatives that denounce cultural relativism that find it such a crime to burn a flag to the point that if some one does they believe they should be punished by law. If culture is so irrelevant and so unimportant when it comes to ethics then why are we willing to point a gun at some ones head for the sake of nationalism (ethnocentrism)? How is this not a form of cultural relativism?

The person with the bumper sticker saying "Support Our Troops" is not trying to make a rational argument, its just another argument from intimidation trying to appeal to your culture instead of your intellect. Its nothing but manipulation and nonsense.

No collective abstraction can compensate for an individuals relationship with truth. You allegiance should be given to truth and consistent moral principles, if culture happens to fall in line then that is fine but your loyalty must remain with the principle not the culture. If you do other wise your priories are out of line and have admitted your disregard for truth for the sake of collectivism.

Concering "openmindedness"

For those of you who have read a lot of my blogs or simply know me fairly well you have probably heard this position of mine before. However I feel the issue needs to be address better due to the cliche/catchphrase of "be openminded" and the damage it has done to epistemology (a philosophical position on how one obtains knowledge and/or truth).

"Openmindedness" and what Ayn Rand called "the cult of moral grayness" go hand in hand. One is used in the realm of ethics and the other in epistemology, but they both end up being the same thing: an attack on reason.

No one is honestly "openminded" when you break down the meaning of that phrase it is utterly meaningless. If one claims to be "openminded" then they have no right to be critical of ANYTHING, because what "openmindedness" ultimately means is "don’t judge".

If one cannot jugde, or is judging is wrong, then you simply cannot judge people for judging because that would ultimately be... A JUDGEMENT.

If you are "openminded" then don’t you have to be open to being "closeminded"? And if you are open to it then can you be critical of it? NO!

People treat this position like some kind of moral high ground when it is really just a sugar coated piece of shit that is logically suicidal. Its just another cliche that feels nice and fuzzy but means nothing at all, which is all that philosophy and "intellectual" thought has been reduced to.

this is my greatest frustration with blogging

All that anyone has to offer are empty catch phrases that fall apart so quickly if people would just STOP FOR ONE SECOND AND THINK then we would could actually get some
where, for heaven sakes we could actually learn something from each other.

If you disagree with me thats fine, I wanna hear it! But at least give me the respect of something at least SLIGHTLY intellectual. Not this empty shit of "your just closeminded!" and "judging people is bad" and "there is no black and whites" and every other phrase that comes as a philosophical default due to a morally bankrupt and empty culture.

I judge and I am prepared to be judged, but I will only respect REASON.

If am wrong REASON will show it, and I would hope I would have the self honesty to admit it.

Now is the time to let go of this empty culture and try to search for truth in the spirit of self honesty and humility to reality. Then and only then can get out of this cage of ignorance.

thank you very much for reading

My Failing Faith In Politics

There was a time when I proudly considered myself "political". I believed strongly in democracy and the social contract. You probably could have considered me patriotic.

But after studying classic liberalism (the philosophy which most the founding fathers advocated) I have been forced to ask the question… is the American experiment a failure? In an attempt to create the smallest government the world had ever seen, they so far have created the largest and fastest growing.

You can call me unpatriotic but before you do ask your self some questions. Do you believe in the income tax? Do you believe in a strong federal government? Do you believe in gun control? Do you believe in standing army? Do you believe that the president can go to war even if congress does not declare it? Do you think America is right to be involved with other countries other then trade and the declaration of war? If you answered yes to any of these then maybe you should reconsider

Chances are you aren't very patriotic either. You probably endorsing the status quo called America, that as far as I can say doesn't stand for much of anything of all.

We just throw out words like "liberty" and "justice" but those words don't seem to mean anything to us anymore.

The Nature of Emotion

I always find it a little funny when people treat emotion as some kind of super natural force. You can see it demonstrated when people use phrases such as "logic isn’t that important to me, just emotion" or "follow your heart" and so on and so forth.

I find it funny because emotion is within the realm of reality and there is no reason to treat it as "something beyond it" or anything that we should guild our life by (at least not core issues, emotions should simply be a factor, not thee factor).

An emotion is simply a reaction based on a value in relation to a fact(s).

For example: You love your cat, your cat gets hit by a car, you are sad.

Cat = Value

Cat getting hit by car = Fact

Sad = Reaction

This seems very basic but it is so often evaded with out a second glance.

To say "I think emotion is more important then logic" makes about as much sense and 2+2=50. Emotions are the result of your relationship with reality and therefore logic.

Emotion should be used as a way to understand your relationship with reality but not as a valid way to live your life or a position on epistemology (The philosophy of how one obtains knowledge or truth). If you do then you life will simply be and endless circle that you walk through blindly, always making the same mistakes and never changing for the better. If you do find some happiness it is simply a matter of luck.

You can either live in harmony with reality or spend your life fighting it with irrational ideals. One ultimately results in life, the other ultimately in death.