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Objectivity comes in many forms. Here, I would like to convince you of
the need for the universality of just one kind: the anarchist
conception of freedom.
I have spoken with orbitalfox about this. Orbitalfox thinks that
values or attitudes are relative to individuals or cultures
themselves.
I think this is wrongheaded. We have to assert that the freedom to be
anarchist, and live in an anarchist society, must be universal, or,
objective.
I think the best way to argue this is by appeal to zoology, or,
biology. Animal behaviour was proven to be developed through an
unemphasised but absolutely critical part of Darwin's *Theory of
Evolution*. This is that not *just* Mutual Struggle (i.e. the
Spencerian distortion, which only includes this part of Darwin's
It is in our very biology as animals, not *just* as human beings to
exhibit this important factor of evolution. So -- being thus formed as
sentient creatures, wouldn't this also have important effects for our
powers of cognition, and also the way our social systems operate?
I think this also has a philosophical significance, beyond a mere
scientific one. What does it mean if humans are fundamentally united
in biology? It obviously excludes any form of bigotry, because all
humans are united in their biology. For example, we only have
anthropological evidence for humans confecting the social concept of
'Race' in the last 10 000 years, since the Neolithic Period.
This line of argument might not satisfy some, though. What if we
considered the question of universal morality from an Idealist point
of view? That is, *if* it was true that humans are best suited to
anarchist values, what does that mean for the 'internal perspective'
for being human? What does that mean for consciousness as a
justification to itself? What is the Logic of universalism?
Doesn't even the need to make the statement 'morality is relative'
require the universality of the concept of rationality? If the above
statement was *not* universal, and was relative, the reverse would be
true. And so there is a contradiction.
I suppose I can go further and deeper than just trickery: to defend
your position of relativism of moral values, don't you have to assert
that I am wrong? Or, are you just trying to say what I am claiming is
in fact not what I am arguing for? My point: many people take the
promotion of universal values as fascistic or totalitarian.
But I don't see how this could be so. Doesn't the concept of universal
morality depend on its content, as well as the form in which it comes?
For instance--I imagine that the objectivity of anarchist freedom
would protect itself from developing into a system of domination. It
would enumerate a principle of universal freedom to ensure that
people's associations were *only* consensual.
To health and anarchy,
~vidak.