Why Relativism Leads to Division and Authoritarianism
What people understand of truth is closely associated with their personal identity, which means that any discussion of "the truth" easily leads to debate, disagreement and fragmentation of ideas based on different people's propositions, claims, beliefs, education, culture and life experiences. Experiencing such diversity in human thought has led many people to accept relativism as a central tenant in the exploration of reality.
Relativism is a philosophy stating that what is real, true or ethical is determined by each person's own mind; implying the mind has the power to circumscribe reality itself and therefore decide what is real and what is to be valued. Under relativism, axioms of science, religion or ethics can be discarded outright with the simple statement "I don't believe that." This is the philosophy that allows authoritarian rulers to ignore science and ethics, because whatever they decide becomes the only accepted "truth." Relativism permits the individual to follow any idea they can imagine, until it conflicts with the needs and aspirations of people around them, at which point they experience conflict (giving rise to authoritarian behavior to put down the inevitable dissent).
Conflict is inevitable and continuous when the mind adheres to the philosophy of relativism because it restricts thought to the self (to the existing ideology), to self-gratification, self-promotion, self-importance, self-oriented goals, self-created ethical principals, self-declared "truths", a way of thought that is inherently associated with the ego.
The idea that any mind, being itself a product or creation of reality, can turn around and circumscribe that reality completely, is an egotistical and prideful idea at its core - how is it possible that anything evolving within the universe is also greater than the universe? The mind can never experience supremacy over all of reality, but it can experience oneness with it, a state of intimate connection, in the same way that children are not meant to become supreme over their parents but are meant to become intimately united with them. The axioms upon which relativism stand are illogical and egotistical, which is why they perpetuate cycles of conflict when expressed in behavior. Simply put, relativism is an ideology and the history of human ideology is the history of conflict and oppression. Under relativism, people's concepts of "truth" eventually become fixed and crystalized until further learning has completely stagnated, and the humility needed to learn more is also no longer present. This is when revolution occurs in a divided society, between the protagonists of one ideology versus another, when two competing views of reality can no longer coexist because one group is not willing to permit the full expression of the other group's perspective.
Why Oneness Leads to Humility and Continuous Learning
There is another understanding of reality that is not relativistic, that of oneness. It is not the human mind that determines reality, truth and ethics, but rather a supernatural living Being that circumscribes the human mind and communicates with the mind through various senses, feelings, intuition and reasoning about what is true, right and real. Rather than the mind being the final arbiter of truth, truth itself is inherent within the universe, meaning that truth is present within each of us, but is also limitless, like the universe. Therefore, some amount of truth is knowable and some amount will always be unknown.
Truth is interconnected, or one, because truth cannot be divided against itself, and it is always being discovered by the mind over time. The philosophy of oneness requires that the human mind stay in a condition of learning, in a state of humility that is ready to learn each day. Rather than going to war for an ideology, the mind interrogates the origin of its own beliefs and seeks to understand the origin of other's beliefs, to arrive at a deeper understanding of human relationships, thought and behavior. Here, the goal is to continuously learn rather than to control others or to protect previously held beliefs.
The only conflict that results from a humble posture of learning is a healthy competition to innovate, for example, to solve a problem faster than a competitor in the marketplace: the competition to learn more. For example, the leader of a technology or healthcare company cannot declare what is true and real and demand the allegiance of consumers. Rather, products, medicines and procedures must be tested until they prove more effective than existing methods. And, when useful knowledge is discovered, eventually it is applied in many forms, worldwide, becoming universal: like how to purify water for safe drinking, how to administer vaccinations, how to fly commercial airplanes safely, how to generate and use electricity, and so on. Kernels of truth, such as scientific discoveries, become universally adopted into the web of human knowledge as a further expression of the oneness of truth and reality.
The philosophy of oneness states that reality is (always) greater than whatever I currently know, and it is greater than whatever I have yet experienced about it. Likewise the meanings and expressions of reality can never be exhausted. This means that human systems of thought can continuously evolve, integrating older truths into newer discoveries, until it is clear that truth itself must be one, to be progressively discovered and integrated into the body of universal knowledge. Knowledge does not belong to any group or culture, being a reflection or facet of that universal truth that animates continuous discovery. Thus, indigenous and cultural knowledge is to be shared with the whole, and not confined to its origin group. Likewise this "local knowledge" cannot be placed in opposition to any other quest for truth, such as the scientific process or revelations provided through intuition, because truth is one and real discovery is always a process of integrating previous conceptions of reality into broader, more expansive conceptions - all knowledge is to be affirmed and it cannot inherently be in conflict with itself. When different knowledge systems appear to be in conflict, the full truth of reality has not yet been discovered.
A humble posture of continuous learning provides the way forward, out of relativism, by allowing one to honor the discoveries and traditional knowledges of the past, while also seeking to discover more, to elaborate on those original ideas, test them against the problems of the present and follow the path of insight generated from the multiple sources of discovery open to us, both spiritual and material. This process of the expansion of human knowledge and discovery will not lead to relativism because each new insight, each deeper understanding, reflects the oneness of truth, to be integrated into the body of universal knowledge for meaningful use by an evolving civilization.