Rights vs. Culture 

Rights vs. Culture

I had my class read a little bit of Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind. I refreshed my memory of a few passages:

Sometimes the United States is attacked for failing to promote human rights; sometimes for wanting to impose "the American way of life" on all people without respect for their cultures....On the other hand, the Ayatollah was initally supported by some here because he represented true Iranian culture. Now he is attacked for violating human rights....When the critics of the U.S. in the name of culture, and of the Ayatollah in the name of human rights, are the same persons, which they often are, they are persons who want to eat their cake and have it, too.