Basic Societal Values

In the thread on abortion, David Burton posted the above as part of a impassioned discussion of the need for values in our society, an area where he feels we as a people are lacking.

I have taken the above suggestion of his and started a new thread with it because I think he makes a good point about a society needing basic values and I think it deserves a separate discussion.

The question to each of you is.....

What three BASIC values would you want to see a society be based on and developed. (I am suggesting a limit of three only to keep things somewhat succinct and manageable). Try to keep them as basic values, upon which this society could then build its social structure.

I'm glad you started this post. But before I answer, I want to make a few more points (I know I'm very chatty today).

Pique said in one of her posts that we are more enlightened today than we were 100 years ago. In a later post, David said:

Unfortunately, it seems that while society has become more enlightened in some areas, it has become 'less enlightened' in others. If one could view society from 10,000 feet, it would appear no more enlightened today than it was 100 years ago (IMO). It seems to me that everytime we adopt an important value, we feel the need to discard a previously adopted important value.

Back to your question. I can't give you three things I'd like society based on, but I can give you one biblical (I think) phrase that sums it up for me:

Do unto other's as you would have have done to you.

"Other's" include the unborn, the elderly, the handicapped, any human being.

Derick

three guiding values i'd like to see in our society:

honesty
compassion
commitment

Three desirable characteristics
Responsible
Respectful
Resourceful

all based on that most important
Relationship
with God

"Love, work and knowledge are the wellsprings of our life, they should also govern it." --Wilhelm Reich

Booze, Booze and more booze. hmmm

More open with people[/b] .(where I live everyone is cramped in there house, barely anyone invites neighbors over, Which is so different from Turkey, where almost everyone you meet treats you like a brother.
More caring.[/b]
Harder working.[/b]

Intersting, coming from a teenager...

I hate to hijack a well-meaning thread like this, but I feel that just naming three broad, sweeping ethics doesn't really say anything about the ethics themselves. I might as just well say:

Love
Less random acts of arbitrarily meted out violence
Less Scientology

Doesn't really get us anywhere, and is kind of a wishlist.

Edit: Anyone else notice that the abortion thread was deleted? Maybe there is an incognito moderator aside from our gracious host.

Could only have been the one who originally posted it.

Isn't this a question they ask in the Miss America Pageant? Like

World Peace
Love
Homes for all puppies

I guess I have trouble getting serious about something so sweeping covered by three items. Sorry.

I noticed it got moved to the Forum Archives section. Frank had written his explanation as the last post before he locked it.

Yes, it has ended up in the forum archives. Frank was getting complaints from parents whose young children visit the board. Completely understandable why he would close it and put it there.

As the one who started this post, let me say that I agree that this sort of topic can be mere pablum and more a wishlist. However, I always find this type of discussion interesting if only because people find it so hard to go to their very basic values.

I find that this is one of the reasons so many people have difficulty in making social, political and moral decisions -- because they have not looked at their own and perhaps not even formulated the most basic values by which they live and make decisions.

Such values as compassion, resourcefulness and hard work are good things, no question, but they need to develop out of more basic values. Why should one be more compassionate? What is the reason resourcefulness is good? Why is hard work important?

I think that it is very possible for someone to identify a few (not many more than three), very basic values upon which to base their life and upon which they approach the complexities of life and other people. Not only do I think it is possible, I think it is important to do so, because we then have the grounding we need to develop all other values and beliefs we will have. Indeed, as was pointed out in another thread, Jesus Christ Himself was able to distill His teachings down to just two basic values -- love of God and love of neighbor. Most other leaders of His stature can also do this.

So, let me give mine. In fact, I will limit mine to just the two from which virtually all of the rest of what I believe flow. (Would I were a good enough person to always act based on these! But I do try and often succeed, even though I fail too often as well.)

1. That ALL human life is sacred, from conception to death, because all of it comes from the Creator and therefore must be protected, respected, allowed to flourish.

2. That each individual be accepted as a unique expression of the Creator and be allowed and encouraged to live as he/she believes best expresses him/herself, and be treated with the dignity the Creator deserves.