I'll step out of hibernation for a moment to post (without giving judgment quite yet) a striking assertion from Mussolini on fascism and cultural moral relativism, as I've just encountered it in C.A.J. Coady's recent & slim book Messy Morality. As Coady (2008, p37) quotes Mussolini:
"Everything that I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and men who claim to be the bearers of an objective, immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than fascism."
Now, Mussolini should not get to frame the discussion here, to be sure. But (he says unhelpfully) it does give one pause.
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to what extent is Mussolini a relevant expert on relativism?
ReplyDeleteYeah, relativists will quite legitimately say "He's no friend of ours!"
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