rights and wrongs

I would like to start out with a quote from the article by Marc Lynch.

“Critical theory insists that legitimacy is only possible where actors enter in to an open-ended dialogue in which the outcome is neither predetermined nor restricted in terms of whose interests are open to debate.”

This sounds good and well but do you think that Mr. Lynch is truly committed to an open dialogue that does not discriminate against one actor’s interest? How about if we sit George Bush and Osama Bin Laden down together and let them give their points of view. Would Mr. Lynch really give Osama a chance to present his interests with out having already decided that his interests are non-legitimate? In Osama’s view he has g-d on his side, and America is the great Satan, and how are we to say that he is incorrect if we do not come to the negotiating table with some restrictions on who has legitimate goals? There is no way to come to a conclusion about who is right and who is wrong unless some predetermined ideas of morality are established.

This is where it gets messy. Every culture has different ideas of what is morally acceptable. Female genital mutilation is completely acceptable in some cultures but we would be quick to condemn it. Like we mentioned in class genocide and slavery were once completely normal and ok. Abortion is another good example, is it murder or a woman’s right? Are women wearing bikinis a sign moral decadence, or are women in burkas a repression of human rights? There is no way to answer these questions without a predetermined idea of what is right and what is wrong. So while critical theorists might want to think that they can come into a situation and somehow be above it and dictate what is right and what is wrong, it is impossible.

There is no universal morality, and the only way one could be found was if one culture imposed their system of morality on everyone else. And even then we wouldn’t know if that was the correct system of morality. All we can do is take the sense of right and wrong that we have been given, use it, and when we are standing at the gates of heaven hope that we picked the right one.

Matt Bank