How can one's values and feelings be preserved in society?

In my previous column, I wrote that feelings and values should be absolute, and not relative.

However, I believe that the conflict between relativism and absolutism, and the problem of absolutism being imposed on others in the societies, is the difficulties of diversity in the 21st century.

I believe that we now have a better understanding of various ideas and identities existing in the society, and that we live in an era in which various ideas should be more readily accepted than before. Therefore, it has become easier to value individual feelings, values, and identities. However, in a society where different ideas and identities intersect, it is easy for the imposition of absolutism to become a bottleneck, which makes the importance of having a relativistic point of view. For example, some people would become aggressive toward those who think differently from their own ideology or identity, or who do not understand their identity, and try to impose their own ideas on others. If they think that their own ideology is absolutely right and those who think differently are wrong.

Are these ideologies (ideas and underlying beliefs about the state of society, etc.) really correct? Imposing absolutism on others, a kind of value absolutism that must be cherished, can lead to conflict, resulting in a backlash that can lead to a disenchantment and a negativity toward diversity. One example of this can be the "diversity fatigue" that exists from advocating the diversities. A society that can respect each other is ideal, but I believe that requires each step to create a society that can truly "accept" the diversity. However, I think that society has become so assertive that it has become difficult for people to respect essential individual values. For example, during the last U.S. presidential election, one of my American friends said, “It doesn’t mean I truly respect President Trump's actions and behaviours, but I could sympathise with some of his policies, and I wanted to support the Republican Party. But I was surrounded by friends who are very sensitive to politically correctness, and I couldn't really say that I wanted to support the Republican Party. I'm afraid that a microaggression will arise where they would think Republicans are all Trump supporters and they don't care about current social issues." He said. Thus, the intrusion of social peer pressure into an individual's absolute values creates a risk of peer pressure-like political correctness, where individuals are unable to expose their opinions to others and may lose their individuality.

Nevertheless, when you subvert the definition of diversity and impose one absolute value on society, on people all over the world, you create an infinitely stronger tonal pressure. The right answer for the greater good denies the values, and those who do not agree with this ideology may become a social minority and might get ostracised from society. Moreover, excessive relativism will make it difficult to find the essence of things and ideologies, as all identities and ideas will become just "opinions" for others.

So, what kind of mindset is important to have when interacting with others in this society? This is just my subjective opinion, but I believe it is important to find commonalities in society that are highly universal from a relative point of view. For example, even if we set an abstract goal of "creating a better society," there are various approaches from economics, business, and SDGs perspectives. While there may be differences in ideas and ideologies, there may also be common ground in the fundamental objective. There are many commonalities in the fundamentals of various ideas and ideologies, and understanding the background and goals in values and ideas and finding universality will deepen our understanding of others. Without understanding the background, these ideas will become mere "impressions" or "booms," and the gap that has developed will be difficult to fill. By taking the attitude of considering things from the perspective of a third party, rather than making assumptions about the values of other people's ideas, we can respect other people's ideas while at the same time respecting our own values. In sociology, there is a term called intersectionality, which refers to a framework for understanding discrimination and disadvantage that occurs when race, gender, sexual orientation, class, nationality, disability, and other frameworks intersect. Each of us has different identities and attributes, and just because we have one attribute in common does not mean that all of our experiences and values are the same. For example, even if they belong to the same community, each person has different values and circumstances. Just because they attended the same elementary school, it does not mean all of them have the same strengths and weaknesses in the same subjects. Each person has different experiences and values, and these differences intersect to form human relationships and society. I would like to recommend you to try to interact with others while using the perspective of intersectionality, and not uniformity in the way you see your own reflection. You would potentially discover something new about others.