Puck on... Relativism, pt. 3

As I said, no one who really believes in Moral Relativism really believes in it.  They can’t.  And yet they believe in it.

How is that possible?

Oh, you know how.  It’s quite common.  Humans do it all the time.  You think you don’t because you don’t call it that.  Ah, you humans and names.  You even think not calling it what it is means it isn’t.  It’s almost a talent, your ability to act as if something is true when you know it isn’t.  Act as if you believe in it when you don’t.  The truth is you are capable, (indeed it nearly seems impossible for you not to), of holding conflicting, even contradictory thoughts in your head.  Content and confident that both are true, proven and reliable.

How, you may wonder, is this possible?  Well, that’s simple.  You just don’t realize it.  Ignorance, or what you call ignorance, is your tool.  The little dividers you put up in your mind so that all those incompatible philosophies don’t touch each other, for if they did, the incongruence would be obvious.  Indeed they would obliterate each other.  But if they remain apart, if the acidic and basic never meet, then you can go on working with both, each alongside the next.

It’s actually quite fun to watch you walk that cerebral tightrope.  It’s made even more amusing by the fact that you have convinced yourselves you don’t walk a tightrope at all.  The magician’s act where even the performer is fooled.  I applaud your ingenuity.

The only place one would expect to find that level of self-delusional is… well, Hell.

So, demons are self-deluded?

No, no, my boy.  You are too quick to change the subject.  This is a very bad sign.  It shows an unwillingness to face certain truths.  Have I shot too close the mark?  Is that why you reel?

I’m not unwilling.

So you say.  Very well then, let’s continue.  Silly me, I’ve gone on talking about how you can accomplish moral relativism.  But the central question was not how, but why.