See if you can guess who said this
I’m going to give you an actual quote from a historical figure, and see if you can figure out what she/he was talking about and who said it. You’ll get two tries. First, I’ll remove a key word from the quote that would give it away.
“Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than <our political party name here> attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, we <political party name here> conclude that we have the right to create our own ideology and to enforce it with all the energy of which we are capable.”
Figure it out yet? Here’s another way to put this same quote by translating some of the philosophical language to layman’s statements we use today:
“Everything I have said and done in these last years is based on the idea that we decide for yourself what is true and right. People who claim there are are things that are objectively right and wrong are incorrect and should be opposed. Everyone has their own truth to tell. There is nobody that embodies this attitude more than our party. From the fact that all truths are of equal value, our efforts conclude that we have the right to speak our own truth and spread that truth with all the energy of which we are capable.
Some of this sound familiar? I would bet a good number of people would agree with some or many of the ideas behind this quote. We see leaders and experts in the media encouraging people to ‘tell their truth’ and that each of us has our own ‘truth’. We also see a lot of people who are very against religions and to increasing degree our own Democratic political and legal systems. We definitely see groups that use social media witch hunts/doxing and cameras as a weapon to intimidate and silence others.
So who would you guess said this? What political party was he referring too?
The answer is this was from Benito Mussolini. The party was his National Fascist Party. Here’s is the original quote from his philosophical writings:
Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth … then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity… From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern 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.
Diuturna The Lasting as quoted in Rational Man : A Modern Interpretation of Aristotelian Ethics
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