The Golden Strawberry

Greetings

This blog is a joint project between myself and Roy and, as you can see from his first post, it will be mainly political in nature. We were inspired to set this thing up by the publication of the Euston Manifesto - an excellent summary of which is avaliable below.

I interpret the central thrust of the Manifestoes argument to be Universalism. The belief that values which happened to have grown and flowered in the West (Universal suffrage, womens rights, individual liberty, seperation of church and state to name a few) should be avaliable to everyone - not just people in Western Europe and North America. An Iranian woman has as much to gain from Western Liberalism as a Chinese coal miner, an American billionaire or someone suffering from AIDS in sub-saharan Africa. What I oppose is the form of soft-relativism that has been peddled in the comment pages of the Guardian for too long - that cultures which subjugate women, hang homosexuals or commit genocide deserve understanding or even respect when in fact these cultures should be critiscised as barbarous.

Cultural Imperialism? Perhaps, but I am firmly convinced that, if given a real choice between a Western Liberal society and the alternatives (Soviet Communism, Iranian Theocracy, Baathist fascism etc), its a no-brainer.

Me and Roy disagree on a number of issues - the extent to which can be used to spread Liberalism is one example, the balance between the public and private sectors in a modern economy another - but we agree that everyone should have the rights we in the West possess.

This blog represents a growing process. I can't speak for Roy but my political opinions are certainly in a state of ongoing evolution. If you want a purely ideological blog, go and read Pat Robertson.

- Posted by Adam