He attacks the view that all cultures are equally valuable, by finding that view embedded in ours. He really digs around to find its manifestation in many ways and how it can make us weak to making important value judgments. > "The Dogma of Otherness insists that all voices deserve a hearing, that all points of view have something of value to offer. > > "Your reactions reflect this fundamental assumption. Having been raised in the same culture, I believe in it as fully as you do. Recall how reluctant I was to decide, at last, that dolphins aren't superintelligent. Most of us here believe in diversity of ideas. > > "But think, for a moment, how unique this is . . . how unusual this cultural mind-set has to be! Throughout history nearly every human society has worked hard to ingrain its children with the assumption that theirs was the only way to do things. Oh, we still get a lot of that here. It probably comes automatically with flags and nations and all that tribal stuff. But where and when else has the societal dogma also included such a powerful counter-indoctrination to defend otherness?" > > A man in the front row speaks up. > > "That's a culturally chauvinistic statement!" There are agreeing nods all around the room. "I mean, what's so special about our culture? We're no better than, say, Asian civili—" > > "You're doing it again!" I cry; I can hardly sit still. (Perhaps from being too impressed with my own cleverness?) Several members of the audience blink for a moment, then smile faintly. > > "I don't see —" he tries to continue, but I'm too excited and hurry on. > > "Look, it may be true that there's something to be learned from all points of view. But it might also be true that that's just the bias our heterogeneous, melting-pot culture has imposed on us! > > "Answer truthfully. You all believe that widely diverse points of view have merit, right?" > > "Right," the young man answers firmly, his jaw set. > > "And your insitence could be called a declaration of faith in a 'Doctrine of Otherness,' right?" > > "I suppose so. But —" > > "And you'll agree that as a truly pervasive set of assumptions, it's pretty much a liberal Western, even American, tradition, won't you? Think how strange this Doctrine of Otherness would seem to an ancient Roman, or to the dynastic Chinese who thought the world revolved around Beijing, or to Tudor England, or to most of the peoples of the world today." > > "Well . . ." He doesn't want to admit it, but after a moment's thought the fellow finally nods. "All right, so that's just our way of looking at things. But you can't say it's actually better than any other way. We have this so-called Doctrine of Otherness. Other people have their own cultural assumptions, of equal value."