It enables us to forgive within our own group what we find useful to condemn in those outside of it. Lapidarianism finds in any difference a sufficient reason for its nurture. That something is, means that it should be allowed to be. It is interesting that one does not often encounter a very strong form of Lapidarianism, which I wil1 call Moral Ecology. The Moral Ecologist understands that what people call evils play as essential a role in social life as what they recognize as goods.
Societies require laws.
Laws require criminals who break them in order to be punished to allow legitimation of espoused values. Ameliorism, the crusading Faith of many, if not most, American educators, sees NeoMulticulturalism as a means of reducing undesirable social options. The Ameliorist would most likely point out that our lyric from Cielito Lindo represents dhe redemption of Mexican culture from the mistreatment of brown-skinned women through a counterbalancing figure of respect, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Barth argues that ethnic distinctions are born out of conflict. In US public schools it is now considered desirable to celebrate and maintain ethnic diversity.