| Good and bad is in the eye of the beholder and what you value. Is American culture (a loaded term because American culture is the product of numerous sub-cultures) better than all other cultures because of our economic strength? If not, then what are the objective measures that define a "good" culture. I'm very glad slavery doesn't exist, because I value equality and freedom. Yet still, I'd ask who is the authority that determines that one culture is better than another because they hold that value? Europeans via too many systems to name here (e.g. colonizing much of the world, forcing religion on indigenous people, slavery, apartheid, etc.) imposed their cultural values on the world and then held them up as the best. Ultimately, it's not right to conflate what you believe with what is objectively good. It all depends what your solving for (e.g. profit, equality, harmony, etc.) |
There are some tools for objectively judging morality aka "good and bad". One is the principle of universality. So an outcome is moral if you can reasonably state that you would be equally happy to be on either side of the table. Slavery generally fails this test, since most people would prefer not to be slaves. Virtually everyone on either side of the slavery divide (slave/free) valued freedom, some of them just didn't value the freedom of other people.