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Question your beliefs

Today, if Twitter is anything to go by, then there is a ‘right’ way to think and believe. This list of cultural beliefs and norms that are prevalent in modern societies, include for instance.

·         Racism is wrong

·         Democracy is right

·         Gender is a fluid, social construct

·         Religion is a primitive belief system

·         Politically we should lean left

·         Diversity should be encouraged

·         Climate change is real

·         Global Trade should be encouraged

Once upon a time, we believed the opposite on all of the above.

I am not suggesting you (or I) should not believe any of the above. But, are these evolved cultural norms of our modern society right because they are right, or are they simply commonly held, popular beliefs that you accept because they appear to be commonly held?

I want to challenge you. Think about it that, once upon a time these also were popular, dominant beliefs:

·         Women belonged at home

·         Germans are a superior race

·         Children should be smacked regularly to discipline them

·         Slavery is okay

·         Kings have a divine right

·         Smoking is cool

·         Adultery is a sin

·         Abortion is murder

If you lived at the time, how likely would you have been to have subscribed to these common beliefs? Before you say there is no way you would have accepted any of these norms, don’t be too quick. Be honest, and consider these questions before you answer:

How much thought has gone into dissecting and understanding each every belief that you hold as true? And how many of them just ‘seem’ right? How many are ‘obviously’ right?

Why is it so hard to find anything that our ancestors once believed and we moderns still believe? Can you think of anything meaningful that you have in common with people living one hundred years ago? Is it really realistic that almost every cultural norm has shifted from wrong to right?

The issue I am addressing here is ‘cultural relativism’. The problem we are facing here is that there is – in the modern society – no ontic reference point by which you can judge something as right or wrong. If you don’t believe in God, then there are no absolutes because everything is simply part of the material world. And if you can’t judge by an absolute truth, then right and wrong does not exist. You can only judge by what ‘most people’ believe or by what ‘feels right’. Or you judge by ‘what is best for society’. All these measures are of course subjective but are all we have in the absence of an objective source of truth.

The point is that what ‘feels right’ changes over time – that much is clear, and is quite self-evident. And this leads us to the greatest paradox of our time: That whole list of thing we so firmly believe is ‘right’ is in FACT not ‘right’, but is merely a subjective opinion.

The question that messes with my mind most of all is this:

Why are the Twitterati then so absolutely convinced of the ‘rightness’ of their views and proceed to argue, fight, troll and vilify anyone who happens to believe the opposite? It is merely a matter of subjective opinion and history shows it will one day be proven quaint and wrong. Yet, they are super convinced that they are right and everyone else is wrong, whilst at the same time admitting that right and wrong does not exist.

Do you get the irony? They claim that absolutes don’t exist, which is of course an absolutists statement. They claim you are wrong, but right and wrong does not exist. Go figure.

 
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