Cultural Relativism & Co-creating the Future
There’s been a lot of talk in my life lately about (cultural) relativism and whether one model of reality can ever be superior to another or if all paradigms ought to be assigned equal value. It seems obvious to me, upon reflection, that relativism, including cultural relativism, is a real, true phenomenon, in that everyone’s experience of reality is subjective, and perspectives, opinions, beliefs, judgments naturally vary from person to person and on the collective level from culture to culture. Not much to argue there!
But just because there are different paradigms of reality and models of what is good for the individual and/or society, this truth of relativism shouldn’t devalue or shame discernment about which ideas we want to see shape the world to come or to judge which ideas are most well suited to bring about the kind of world we want to live in. I really want to emphasize that that judging a viewpoint is not the same as judging the worth of a person based on their views.
These days, when I come across a perspective, framework, or narrative that resonates with me, I don’t necessarily need to ask or believe it to be objectively right because as a relativist, empirical truth isn’t always the yardstick I use to assess how much I resonate with it. Instead, I tend to measure how my experience of life changes when I see from that angle, and what kind of impact I imagine it would make on the world if more people saw through this lens.
Building on this, a once deeply cynical part of me recently realized that the implications of there being no objective meaning in life are more positive and empowering than they are depressing and nihilistic because it means we have the power to choose the meaning we assign to living — meaning is a construct that we get to construct. And this awakened me to an understanding that narratives are one of, if not the most, powerful tools of the human mind because they give us the ability to consciously create our experience of life. And just as we can choose which perspectives to sculpt our personal experience with, we have the same power and responsibility to co-create our communal, societal, and global reality.
When you think about it, we’re co-creating our shared reality every second of every day, and we do it almost entirely unconsciously. In real-time, our thoughts influence our perception, which influences our behaviors, and our behaviors lead to outcomes. Letting the weight of this really sink in — the narratives we tell ourselves can make the difference between heaven and hell, so we need to wake up now and claim this radical power we have in our hands because it’s a double-edged sword — a curse or a blessing depending on whether we wield it to do harm, or to valiantly bushwack a better path for ourselves and humanity.
To add more color to this, the conversation that inspired me to write this was on relativism in the context of spiritual narratives. The example I gave to support my views, is that I once ascribed to the belief (which became inseparable from my experience) that the world is simply an illusion, the separate “ego” self doesn’t actually exist, and that radical ego transcendence and dissolving this purely illusory construct of a “self” who suffers (insert belief: “no self, no suffering.”) the path to the eventual eradication of psychological suffering relies upon the collective transformation I believed this narrative would lead to.
After experiencing the harm this perspective eventually inflicted (a topic for another time), I no longer ascribe to that belief or experience reality in that way, yet I still believe that others have the right to. But, and it’s a big but, I would not want to see this taught to my (future) children. I would not feel comfortable in a spiritual community (or any kind of community) founded on the shared value of self-negation as the pathway to wellbeing, as I wish for any predominant spiritual paradigm to promote human flourishing and celebration of personhood as an integral part of the greater totality of what each of us are. So what I resonate with and advocate for instead, are non-dual perspectives and associated narratives that are Unividual (See: Tim Freke), meaning that every individual person (and thing) is simultaneously separate and united, as they are each unique manifestations of one source, god or whatever you choose to call it, and the ego is not a barrier to experiencing this reality. I align with this perspective, not just because I directly experience the world this way, but because I know first hand how profoundly and positively transformative it is. Generating qualities like awe, inter-connection, personal empowerment, gratitude, compassion for self/others, altruism, and associated humanistic values, it can cultivate holistic well-being on both the individual and collective level, and promote the kind of evolutionary path I deeply wish for humankind to forge. This is the only “proof” I need to advocate for it.
What I ultimately hope to get across here is that we must encourage each other to harness the truth of relativism, not to stifle our discernment and evaluation of differing perspectives, but to empower each of us (leveraging the power of narrative, and our ability to consciously co-create reality) with the conviction that we have a role to play in shaping a better future not by simply imagining it, but by deeply contemplating which narratives best serve it, and which ideas, if followed, will lead us in the opposite direction. Then, with respect for everyone (because this is about an authentic desire for what enhances the wellbeing of everyone) advocate not for the objective superiority, of our perspective, but for how it is best suited to bring about the kind of world we want to live in.
