ABSTRACT
The concept of cultural relativism is used by many communitarians as a defense of their idealized way of life against the individualism and alienation that liberal human rights are thought to imply. The underlying theme of the relativist critique is a nostalgia for the lost simplicity of communitarian society. This nostalgia is compounded by a general romanticization of the primitive that fulfills the function of alleviating the alleged mass alienation of modern society. Cultural absolutism declares a society's culture to be of supreme ethical value. In the modern world, concepts such as cultural absolutism that deny individuals the moral right to make comparisons and insist on universal standards of right and wrong are happily adopted by those who control the state. The belief that all systems of social justice are equally good reflects both Western romanticism of primitive societies and an unwillingness to acknowledge the social changes that have occurred in non-Western societies over the past several centuries.
