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was adamant that we should not judge other
cultures. My comment, she said, was well-
meaning, but it bordered on racism.
This seemed like the world upside down:
not caring about the suffering and fate of
women in other countries seemed extremely
racist to me. The fact that I am myself a
woman from another culture, one which has
witnessed horrendous human rights abuses,
made the point all the more evident.
These two issues– Hitler and the rights of
women in other cultures – resurfaced some
time ago when I started teaching humanities
in a South Australian high school. One day,
I was asked to co-teach a lesson, and it was
then, less than two weeks after I had been
hired, that I heard the opinion that had so
disturbed me during my time as a lecturer.
Hitler, the teacher told students, was a
product of his time and culture. Judging
another culture was arrogant. Moreover,
Holocaust denial was valid knowledge.
After all, you have your truth, and I have my
truth, and all truths are equally valid. In these
extreme postmodern times, the students did
not blink an eye.
Profoundly disturbed, I brought the
issue up with a senior teacher. Her
response: the teacher in question was very
knowledgeable; I should be silent and learn
from her. It was only when I brought up my
partial Jewish ancestry that school leaders
became responsive and apologetic: I was
suddenly a member of a minority, and
offending minorities was intolerant.
I tried to explain that ultimately this had
nothing to do with my ancestry, but they
thought it had everything to do with it and
kept referring to how the incident had
made me feel. They could understand the
language of emotional hurt, but not the
language of values and ideals.
A few weeks later, I asked the students
point-blank if they thought a Jordanian
custom where women are forced to marry
their rapists was right or wrong. It was a
simple question, and I did not shy away
from the categories right or wrong. They
themselves seemed taboo, judging by the
students’ bodily reactions (several squirmed
in their seats). I was baffled when, after a
long silence, the vast majority of teenagers
either said that we should not judge this
custom, or that the custom was okay for
Jordan. A teacher who was present in the
room nodded in agreement.
I simplified the question: “Okay, is rape, in
itself, right or wrong?” Once again, silence
took over the room. No one dared answer.
For the first time in my life as an educator, I
found myself yelling. “Rape is wrong!”
The students looked completely
bewildered. Had I just repeated the taboo
word, ‘wrong’? After more silence, a girl
dared put up her hand, and the expected
happened: she said we should respect the
perspective that rape is fine. As long as it
happens to women in other cultures, that is.
My question at this point is: What is
happening to education in this country?
When did human rights become racist?
I am aware of the complexities at stake. I
am not promoting naive and authoritarian
absolutism. I understand that we have much
to learn from cultural relativism: as put by
James Rachels, cultural relativism teaches
us that many of our values and views are
determined by the society we grow up in.
Many of the practices and attitudes we find
natural are really only cultural products.
A real and deep understanding of other
cultures is a key value that should certainly
be promoted in schools and universities.
But, in the words of Rachels, nothing about
tolerance and understanding requires us to
say that all beliefs, all religions and all social
practices are equally admirable.
To deny the existence of some basic
universal values, to deny the existence of
facts, to dispense completely with the notion
of truth, to promote this ‘anything goes’ kind
of relativism, is not doing anyone any favours.
This cult of tolerance is not really
tolerance at all: it is the promotion of lies
and of human indifference, and it is deeply
enmeshed with racism.
The problem is that those who espouse
these ideas believe they are doing the
opposite. They believe they are open-
minded left-wing people, respectful of all
customs, histories and cultures.
I understand it is not always easy to
draw the line. I understand the discomfort
in judging the practices of other cultures,
especially in view of a shameful European
history of destroying native cultures in the
name of European religions and values.
I have myself published articles against
European cultural imperialism and against
the condemnation of other cultures. But,
once again citing Rachels: “To condemn
a particular practice is not to say that the
culture on the whole is inferior to any
other culture.
“The culture could have many admirable
features. In fact, we should expect this to
be true of most human societies – they are
mixtures of good and bad practices.”
David Aspin and Judith Chapman have
noted that the fight against extreme
relativism is one of the most contentious
issues in the realm of values in Australian
education institutions today. They have
suggested that those who oppose extreme
relativism are mostly religious teachers and
leaders. I argue that this is an urgent debate
that needs to take place within the left wing,
non-religious camp.
It is extremely important that universities
include ethics in their teaching courses. A
return to some notion of truth that is out
there, independent of us, is imperative. In
these Trumpist times of lies and fake news,
extreme cognitive relativism undermines all
our knowledge, and leads us down some
really perilous paths. The same goes for
extreme cultural and moral relativism. A
return to facts, to idealism, to values and to
human rights is not arrogant or intolerant.
Let’s have the courage to care. ■
Dr Ines Dunstan is an academic at
Flinders University.
* Some identifying details have been changed
for privacy reasons.
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