This essay came to mind today in regards to the college course I'm teaching on Ethics.  It's an introductory course, and having gone through the less exciting work of examining ethics academically and historically and philosophically, I'm giving the students the opportunity to put some of these new intellectual models and skills to work in interacting with current ethical situations.  In other words, they get to say what they think and go through the effort of supporting it and dissecting it ethically.

The first topic I chose was abortion.

They've had two weeks to discuss the roots of the modern abortion movement, analyze the core issues in terms of meta-ethical concepts (what does right and wrong mean and who decides those definitions), normative ethics (how do we decide how we ought to act, how we ought to make choices regarding abortion), and then the more common applied ethics (what does all this high-falutin' stuff look like in terms of policies, laws, standards of behavior, etc.).  They have to submit a paper by tomorrow night talking about all this stuff as well.  And they have to give their opinion.

It's a small class - only five students.  But only two of them have bothered to state their opinions on the topic - and one of them was not really formally stating his opinion but responding to the other student's posting on it.  In two weeks, nobody has apparently felt it worth their while to say what their opinion is and to provide the intellectual basis for that opinion.  It disgusts me.

There are many possible reasons for their silence (I've asked them to share why they haven't responded - we'll see if any of them do).  I tend to think (whether they articulate this or not) that they see no reason to engage in discussion on this matter because discussion implies that there could be Right Answers or Wrong Answers.  And in the relativistic educational climate they have been raised in, they have been  assured that this can't be the case.  What is right for them needn't be right for someone else (despite the fact that they are willing to pass or fight laws on a behavior that binds both them and everyone else).  What they consider wrong may not be wrong for another person.   Why bother discussing anything?  All that matters is that you have your opinion.  You needn't examine it.  You needn't defend it.  You needn't attempt to demonstrate to others why your opinion is correct.  All you need is your opinion.

There are probably other more mundane reasons as well - end of the semester crunch, etc.  But behind all of that, I suspect that this issue of relativism is what has driven their silence.  And that frightens me for our future.  We see the seeds planted today, where right and wrong don't need to be analyzed publicly any deeper than insulting and marginalizing your opponents.  At some point, even that will become unnecessary.  Do you have the power?  Use it.  You needn't justify it or explain it or defend it.  Your mere possession of it is reason enough.  And expect that, should the tides of fortune shift, you will be on the receiving end of similar treatment.

Fascinating, and horrifying. 

Oh well - Happy Saturday!