I had a conversation/debate with a family friend the other night when the concept of cultural superiority came up. Now the politically correct answer is all cultures are equal, but we know this isn't true. I believe all people all created equal, but by this belief I must exclaim that not all cultures are so, as many groups do not recognize this right.
When I say our culture, I mean the greater American Culture, the macroculture of our nation, if you will. I never claimed our culture was the best, simply that it was superior to many. She disagreed, arguing no culture was superior to any other.
She then went on to argue that many women take great security in the burka, and that we have no place to assist a culture in getting rid of it. She then defended monarchies, and said we had no right to suggest democracy was superior. She stated a free press was not necessarily better than a government controlled one.
I am not kidding.
I said ours was superior; she said that was arrogant. I said fine, and superior. No, just arrogant.
I no longer respect the opinions of this individual. I mean it: her thoughts are trash to me, and I'll waste no time giving them time or energy. The First Amendment is the line in the sand. If we stand for, fight for, die for anything it should be the rights of speech, religion, and the press. We can debate much of the rest; bearing arms, wiretapping, torture, presumption of innocence, abortion, the death penalty; I can find arguments for both sides of any of these topics off the top of my head. Some things are simply facts, one-dimensional truths.
Our culture is better than one where a woman raped in a mall is the offender for being in public alone. Period. Voting for office is better than having someone born king or queen, lord until death. Period. Guaranteeing an individual the right to select their own faith, or none at all, is better than forcing a religion upon the masses on pain of death. How can a nation claim to have its population be of a certain religion if the people have only one choice? If all are a faith by force, then none are that faith by choice.
How naive can an individual be? Is this the level of idiocy people have devolved to? I don't even have to tell you to which party this person belonged. Other members of this group should be embarrassed, the same way I am by the bigots in my party.
I'm not saying American culture is better than French culture. Nor do I look down upon the Germans, the Italians, the Brits or any other group that stands for freedom and democracy. I don't know who has the best culture in the free world, if any one nation does. But I don't have to choose, because I have the choice to enjoy them all.
You see, what it comes down to is I hold these truths to be self-evident. I believe every human being is entitled to certain, inalienable rights. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. The right to be free from oppression. These are not just words. They are the heart and soul of what is right in this twisted, violent little world of ours. They are all we can agree on, what we must agree on.
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4 comments:
It is not necessarily that our culture is superior, rather our ideals. We strive live up to the ideals of unalienable rights envisioned in our founding without the impediment of a King or Dictator or any other form of oppression. That isn't simply an American thing, it is a concept that transcends nationality into a goal for humanity. We just happen to be way better at it than anyone else lol, and thus superior in that sense. We will continue to fight for the unalienable rights of all of humankind, and we welcome all other cultures that join us at the top. With that said, I will say there are no other countries better than ours no matter how hard they try. ;-)
Btw, ask your friend if she has ever taken a plane ride into a strict Middle Eastern country, say, Saudi Arabia. Ask her if she saw all the women not covered up until the pilot announces that they have reached Arabian airspace even though they won't land for another couple hours. Ask her why so many refused the "security" of their Burkas until the "safety" of their own country. She will then know that they wear those Burkas for no other reason than oppression and fear. Unless she means by "security" that they wear them to avoid punishment by lashing.
Yeah, that was pretty much my interpretation for her to. We all have "choices." They choose the burka as they choose not to be raped, beaten, imprisoned or killed.
But I'd go so far as to say ideals and culture are interwoven. If you give people freedom, they will take some of these freedoms, leading to a different culture. So yeah, the culture here is better than the one in Saudi Arabia.
Agreed, our culture is defined by our ideals and convictions. You can't have a defined culture without them.
While I agree our culture has its advantages over others, we're far from perfect. I won't go into details.
Though our culture is superior than others, do we have the right to forcefully replace other cultures with it? Do we have a moral obligation? I think you know my answer.
Oh, your family friend is a socialist. I'm guessing they're voting for Obama?
Funny thing is the fool was planning to vote McCain if Hilary lost. Now she is back with Obama because McCain met up with Bush. Like I said, I no longer care what this individual thinks.
And yeah, we have a responsibility to give people the right to democracy.
"John McCain, f*** yeah,
Freedom is the only way, yeah."
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