How do those who want more religion in domestic civic life yet oppose the notion that other countries can build their governments around their religious beliefs reconcile this hypocrisy and maintain any sense of integrity with themselves? In fact, why is it that so many people, especially in the United States but elsewhere as well, are so quick to embrace a double standard that permits them to do whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want while arguing in the same breath that others shouldn't be allowed the same rights and capacities. Today, the President of the United States embraces this doctrine while claiming to be building a movement for democracy around the world with his own country as the model. It only takes 4 picoseconds of consideration to see that this is destined for failure.
This is not just a complaint about human hypocrisy and self-serving shortsightedness. There are serious consequences here. If people around the world embrace democracy and then find that the Godfather wants to clip their wings, they may reject democracy as founded on empty promises.
Double standards work fine if you have no need for legitimacy or desire for respect. But for a nation that seeks to lead and hopes to have its admonishments followed, there is no advantage to such a double standard. Why is this so difficult to accept? Are people so insecure that they can't handle either giving others equal opportunity or ascribing the same limits to themselves? What is there to lose? Continued insistence on preserving the double standard seems to reduce to the maxim of Might Makes Right, which is absolutely true in the physical sense but is unacceptable in a moral one. At least, it should be.
Posted by Nutrimentia at March 13, 2005 07:44 PM | TrackBack