The Baldies get the brush off

Hirsute hijinks in Hairland.

The Relatavians are engaged in trade talks with the people of Hairland, a country which has a small population of Baldies. The delegation from Relatavia object to certain things about life in Hairland such as the unequal treatment of Baldies there. The leader of the Hairland delegation makes his excuses, but the Baldie member of the group from Relatavia notes that parents are offered a screening programme to ensure that they won’t have Baldie babies, and that Baldies are flogged and even killed during times of crisis.

The Relatavians pride themselves on their tolerance of other cultures, but the leader of the Hairland delegation asks them if they’re trying to impose their values on them. What should the Relatavians say to that?

I suppose that’s the conundrum of relativism. If it’s going to be tolerant about one aspect of a society, it has to be tolerant about the other, less pleasant ones. Yet it would seem that if human rights are being violated, then saying “That’s what they do” is essentially unethical. The Relatavians are being told, diplomatically, to shut their cake holes.

I wonder how many people are relativists because society would censure how they really feel about one issue or another. I suspect that we all tolerate things that we don’t like and end up being hypocrites, which is a less bad situation for the public good.

And there will be more from the Relatavian delegation tomorrow.