In theory, I agree with the assertion that sovereignty protects diversity. Sovereignty means that countries can pass laws that are as different from other countries as they wish. It allows countries to retain identities and social systems, regardless of what other countries wish them to do. In this way, cultures can retain their identities, and the human race stays diverse.
However, diversity is not always a positive thing. Sovereignty allows Arab nations to ignore woman's rights, and allows for the passive perpetuation of the caste system in India. These things are part of the culture and diversity of those countries, but I, as a girl that has been raised in relatively liberal America and ingrained with visions of social equality and economic mobility, don't think they should have a place anywhere on this planet.
Spinning off of your want for social equality, do you wish that there wasn't sovereignty for the different, so that liberals, perhaps America, could take over and promote social equality? Would this mean valuing lives and people's right over sustaining their culture? And if so, would you be ok with that?
ReplyDeleteThis brings up an interesting question in my mind: who are we to tell anyone how their cultures should be run? We're just another macrocosm of society. We may disagree with how the aforementioned "Arab nations" treat women but it is not our right by any means to tell them how to dictate their sovereignty. I guess what I'm driving at is that we can't try to impose our morals on others and that's what this post sounds like it's getting at to me
ReplyDeleteI do agree that sovereignty provides an outlet for countries to exercise beliefs that we don;t always necessarily agree with, but I don't completely think that that is a problem with diversity. I believe that that is more a problem with the government than anything else, as there are institutions such as the UN to help fight these inequalities in other countries. I hardly believe that is reason to look down on the idea of diversity altogether.
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