What is Monetary Relativism?

“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” — Pope Benedict XVI

“[Relativism] claimed that all truth is culturally situated (except its own truth, which is for all cultures); it claimed there are no transcendental truths (except its own pronouncements, which transcend specific contexts); it claimed that all hierarchies or value rankings are oppressive and marginalizing (except its own value ranking, which is superior to the alternatives); it claimed that there are no universal truths (except its own pluralism, which is universally true for all peoples).” — Ken Wilber, A Theory of Everything

“In economic terms, relativism is clearly an absurd position, for the monetary tools and systems that we choose have profound consequences on social order and dynamics. A relativistic position that suggests barter is equally as ‘good’, ‘true’ or ‘worthwhile’ to use as, say, an international currency such as the Bancor put forth by John Maynard Keynes is utter madness when one takes into account the context of global complexities, capital flows and the instantaneity of transactions on which the international system now depends.” — Jordan MacLeod, New Currency

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In New Currency I briefly touched on the prevalence of philosophical and moral relativism in academia and Western culture. These positions hold that there are no absolutes in the universe, only relative claims. As Wilber points out, the problem with such ideas is that they themselves are absolute claims dismissing the possibility of absolute claims. Thus, they run into the fatal error of performative contradictions.

These unreasonable positions can only be understood as intellectualized protest against the status quo. When one cannot transcend or resolve the current problems related to globalization, it is apparently in the interest of many academics and activists to attack the systems that are “causing” these problems, as if that will solve anything. Relativism can therefore be understood to have an inherently nihilistic nature that presents itself as a serious roadblock to further economic and social evolution. It simply cannot discern between the shadows of current systems and cultures and their essence and totality. The enormous and indispensable contributions of, say, capitalism are thereby tossed out with its increasingly apparent shortcomings. The baby is thrown out with the bath water. Read more »