Values
October 4th, 2007 | by Dr. Forbush |Back in May I wrote a bit about values. It’s hard to believe that I wrote it almost five months ago, but I remember it as if I wrote it yesterday. I was thinking about values again recently, I remembered what I had written, and I began to wonder just what values the conservative s treasure when they claim to be about values.
As I pointed out when I first wrote about values, everyone has values. The most selfish value that most everyone has is to value their own life. The truth is that the question isn’t whether someone has values or doesn’t have values. No, everyone has values. The question is the priority of those values. Some people place the value of their own life above anything else. Some people place religion above their own life. Some people place country between the two. No matter what the order of these personal priorities, all people have values. The question is, “what is the priority of those values?”
There is an ideal view of what priorities “a God Fearing American Patriot” should have. But there are quite a few distinctions and intricate details of these “priority of values” when a person begins to think about the details. Does a person need to be religious to be an American Patriot? Should our priority be to put the government above our own life, or is it our country as community that takes this priority? Can one fight for one’s country and still oppose the government that is directing the war?
These questions are asked by many Americans, regardless of political party. Many conservative s desire small government, because they fear a government so strong that it demands a place in the order of values. Some conservative s argue that they want to retain their “right to bear arms” in order to defend themselves against a government that may have acquired too much power. Similarly liberals demand to right to question the decisions made by a government that they disagree with. They want to put their bodies out there on the line to prove to the world that there are people in America that disagree with the idiotic decisions made by an unenlightene d government. Both conservative s and liberals should be able to agree that the value of government should not be placed above the value of the country as a collection of its citizens. This is often a difficult concept to understand because the government is often envisioned as the embodiment of its citizens.
But, the value of community should be placed above the value of self. Often a fight to the death is the only protection that a community has for its survival. If the community surrenders to its enemy the citizens may survive, but the community and culture become assimilated into the community and culture of the enemy. Individuals survive, but the culture dies.
For some, community extends to their religious community. In the United States there has always been a gentlemen’ s agreement that for the sake of the country as a whole we don’t question the details of a person’s religious life. If the person can function in our society as a whole, then it doesn’t matter what a person believes on a personal level. For our society to function, it is important that personal religious beliefs do not interfere with the total functioning of the society as a whole. For example, a religious belief of killing all non-Christia ns would not be tolerated by the society as a whole, because this belief would interfere with the functioning of the greater society. So, for the good of the total community it is understood that some religious ideas must not be tolerated by the society as a whole.
Many people will still profess that they value religion above everything - their highest priority value. This works, as long as all of their religious values do not interfere with any other citizens. This value suddenly becomes a problem when a religious person determines that it is his personal priority to impose his personal belief on other members of the community by virtue of religious directive. Now, this wouldn’t be an issue if every religion had the same priorities, or if every citizen were a member of the same religion. But, in reality in a diverse country like the United States of America this is impossible. Therefore, when a group professes that their personal religion is valued as a priority above the nation as a whole, as many religions do, there is bound to be a conflict with the society as a whole at some point. When two different and contrasting religions offer the same prerogative to the point that each religion believes that the survival of the religion is valued above life itself, then the atmosphere is ripe for violence and maybe even war.
The interesting and dangerous truth is that many religious conservative s proudly profess that they value God first, Country second and Family third in their list of values. God’s laws outrank the country’s laws by the nature of this declaration. Unfortunatel y when two different religions, for example Islamic Fundamentali sts and Christian Fundamentali sts share these same values, then violence is bound to develop. On the other hand, if community is a shared number one value arguments will still happen, which is natural, but community would be encouraged to circle the wagons and defend itself when a rouge religious element develops. Other religions would be protected if this were the shared value in the community. Unfortunatel y many people continue to teach their children these dangerous “family values.”
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Don’t forget what Stephen Colbert said, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit
Tags: General, BIO, Family Values
