Social scientists have suggested that all societies adhere to certain universal values. One form or another of the Golden Rule, for example, appears in all cultures. It may follow that, if we want to rise above cultural relativism, we might adopt values that humans seem to share and agree on already. The author of this article dismisses various…

The historical rhetoric, mythic heroes, and values of the American Revolution have become the justification for many other contemporary "revolutions." Collective movements advocating states' independence, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, civil rights, and so on, have manipulated the concept of heroic equality as it is embodied…