Premise? Conclusion?

Premise: Repeated exposure to something causes you to be accustomed to it.

Conclusion: Giving children provocative toys will acclimate them to an idea we may or may not be comfortable with them becoming acclimated to.

Moral Relativism

Moral Relativism: the phrase we all love to hate. As Stanford Encyclopedia defines it, moral relativism is a rarely professed, yet often talked about view on philosophy. Many more people are absolutists, posing as relativists. Moral relativism states that ethics are not strict to humanity, as much as imposed by the will of a group of people who inhabit a certain area or culture. Very commonly moral relativism is preached by those aforementioned posers, not in it's pure form, but mislabeled. What many so-called relativists preach is not so much actual relativism, but tolerance. The difference lies in this; relativists will not say something culturally acceptable somewhere is unethical, while a poser will call them unethical but try to respect cultural boundaries and the reaches of their own society's impact on others.
The dominance of men over women has been a long standing cross-cultural phenomenon. Being a member of the 'fairer sex,' (and not appreciating THAT label one bit) has it's perks, but it also has it's negative sides. There exists a tribe known as the Hamar.

In the lower Omo Valley of Southern Ethiopia You can find a lot of interesting tribes with different customs. One of them are the Hamar people,numbering about 30.000, they are known for their practice of body adornment and wearing a multitude of colorful beads. Their society consists of a complex system of age groups. To pass from one age group to another involves complicated rituals. The most important ceremony for young men is the "bull jumping" ,the final test before passing into adulthood. The ceremony lasts three days and late in the afternoon on the final day, different number of bulls(in our case were 6)are lined up side by side. The candidate rushes towards the animals, vaults onto the first bull's back and then runs across the line of them. At the end of the line he turns back to repeat the performance in the opposite direction. He must make this several times without falling.
Before the main event of the ceremony the unmarried women of his family have to prove family's courage allowing themselves to be whipped. I noticed that were the women that picked out and encouraged the not very enterprising young men to whip them. Before,throughout and after the whipping ceremony the women were dancing and singing until late night. -http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Africa/Ethiopia/photo348332.htm

Suppose you came across this tribe. You saw this ritual being preformed. The women are proud do to this! The women are willing, and ready. They get themselves intoxicated on alcohol beforehand to numb themselves to the pain; they know what to expect. They are judged by their scars. This is a real life scenario. This happens. Even though this is a cultural decision and tradition, I do not agree with it. It is awful that men in this situation feel the need to show their power over women by whipping them, and it's even worse that the women are so conditioned to this life that they would consider it a dishonor to not participate. A relativist would say that this is ok, because it's a cultural choice, and they have their own set of ethics to abide by. Having seen this, I cannot imagine myself tolerating that kind of unprovoked violence in any culture. Reacting to this real life situation I have proven to myself that I am, in fact, an anti-relativist.

Relativism is not a reasonable approach to ethics, and yet neither is absolutism. I consider myself to be an anti-relativist. I consider myself to be an opinionated person. When I think something is wrong, I think it is wrong. It is not impossible to sway me, and I try to listen and understand both sides of an issue before I come to a decision. However, in my current situation I do not feel particularly qualified to tell people what is right and what is wrong. You can say 'is abortion right or wrong' and I will tell you that I don't agree with it. But I won't tell you not to do it. I am pro-choice. My morals are absolute, but my resolution is relative. How strongly I will impose my absolute views on other people is relative. I do not think abortion should be outlawed in first trimester. Now, having confused myself a great deal, I am going to end this blog.

[Relativism is like communism; it sounds great on paper, but it would never work.]