Universal Ideals Do Exist
By Conor Friedersdorf '02

Editor,

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are universal ideals. Just ask people as diverse as exiled Tibetan monks, Canadian fisherman, Shiite prisoners of Saddam Hussein's regime, and Holocaust survivors of every stripe.

Yet Ryan Tacher argues otherwise in his April 4, 2003 opinion article,

"Fundamentals Misunderstood." "For some that others might call fundamentalists, devotion to God requires people to make many sacrifices in this world in order to achieve a greater good," Tacher writes. "As Americans, we often pity people who live in strict regimes, believing our system to be better... Yet, if we begin to believe that areas of the world that do not practice these ideals are evil, and that we have the duty to forcibly instill these values, we will become as tyrannical as the totalitarian regimes we despise so much."

No matter what you think of current United States policy, you ought to agree that Tacher is wrong on the principles.

All over the world, ruthless leaders commit atrocities that they legitimize with appeals to totalitarianism and fundamentalism-or sometimes through brute force.

Tacher clearly misunderstands these regimes as he questions the universality of the principles that would oust them from power.

1) Every fundamentalist regime in the world today rules by force and fear, not by power legitimately conferred by the people for religious reasons.

2) A person given liberty can choose what kind of life to lead, what kind of beliefs to subscribe to, and what kind of leaders to follow. Liberty and religious fundamentalism are not mutually exclusive. One that truly wants fundamentalism can impose it on oneself.

3) When religion and culture are used to justify the unjustifiable-when, for example, women are stoned to death for being raped, or their genitals are mutilated as a coming-of-age ritual-should the world stand by so as not to "impose" liberty?

The question is begged: impose liberty on whom?

For elites and male fundamentalists, perhaps one could argue that such laws improve society. But what of its victims?

Here's another truth to hold as self-evident: all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.

When men subvert those rights in an attempt to grab power, they ought to be stopped, no matter if they justify their acts on the grounds of religion or culture. In so doing, people can be free to buy into whatever system they like, and no one will be imposing any belief save one-that people ought to be free to live as they want, not as others want.