Cultural Goodness And Absolute Goodness

I have heard it said that how you are seen as a person is function of culture that you inhabit. My take on the subject is that some things are culturally relative and some things are universal.

Jeffrey Dahmer was seen in America as a bad person because he was a cannibal. If he had been Maori, he would not have been seen as a bad person. Here, judgment is function of culture.

However there are some judgments that are cross-cultural. Gandhi is regarded cross-culturally as a good person. Hitler is regarded cross-culturally as a bad one. There appear to be some things on which everyone agrees regardless of culture.

It appears therefore that some things are culturally relative and some things are universal. Some qualities appear to cut across cultures and bespeak a universal human truth. Qualities such as compassion, wisdom and kindness cut across cultures and reach to the essence of human beingness. And they are valued regardless of the culture.

I want to see more attention paid toward cultivating such qualities. If India can have a Gandhi then so can Russia or Germany. There appears to be such a thing as absolute (as opposed to culturally relative) goodness. And I want to see more effort directed to figuring out this absolute goodness and applying it to the affairs of mankind.