Brave New Kitty

Wikipedia defines values as “broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes.” This can apply to both individuals and cultures. It defines individual (personal) values as “an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, constructive, etc…Values generate behavior and help solve common human problems for survival by comparative rankings, the results of which provide answers to questions of why people do what they do and in what order they choose to do them.” Cultural values are those largely shared by a culture’s members, often identifiable by “noting which people receive honor and respect.”

In short, values help individuals and cultures (which are really just groups of individuals who share a similar background) determine what’s important and why, which in turn determines actions. Whether aware of them or not, values–both those foisted on us (cultural) and those we choose (personal)–underlie all of our thoughts, habits, opinions, and behaviors. Values are, in essence, the building blocks of all the choices we make in life.

It follows, then, that the more carefully we choose our values, the better our choices will be. Better choices will inevitably result in a better life, “better” in this case meaning more likely to achieve the outcomes that are the most important to us–those outcomes with the most value, that is.

I think this is all fairly well understood by most people: Values, consciously chosen and deliberately acted upon, are integral to a life well-lived. But what about applying those values consistently, in all areas of life, across all situations?

This is a little trickier. Yet, I believe, just as important, because without the capacity to apply one’s values consistently, it is questionable how well understood or deeply held a value really is–or if it is, in fact, really a value at all.

What really got me thinking about this is listening to people’s political opinions. Without getting into political beliefs, which aren’t the point, I’ve noticed that many people, including “expert” pundits and even politicians themselves, hold wildly inconsistent political values. As an example, let’s take individual freedom. Most Americans would agree that individual freedom is an important cultural value: that people should be free to live as they choose as long as they don’t infringe upon other people’s right to do the same. This value is so important, it is the primary founding principle of the country, guaranteed in writing in our Constitution, and the basis from which all other American freedoms and rights are derived, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, freedom to own private property, the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to bear arms, and so many others.

Americans may differ on which of these guaranteed rights and freedoms are the most important, but few would argue that our freedom is absolutely essential to the American way of life, to “the pursuit of happiness.” Yet almost everywhere you turn, you hear people stating opinions that are completely antithetical to the idea of personal freedom. The classic example of this (for me, anyway) are drug laws. Today, the idea of “legal” and “illegal” drugs is so commonplace and accepted, few people question the morality of why possession of certain drugs risks imprisonment. Yet before the late 19th century, the idea of an illegal substance was unheard of. All drugs were legally obtainable because people were considered capable of being stewards of their own bodies–further, we are Constitutionally guaranteed the right to be. How and why this changed is a fascinating study in how politicians usurped the rights of American citizens, and how it paved the way for the gradual, continuous erosion of personal freedom now so ubiquitous that most no longer notice it for what it is.

If you ask people what they think about “illegal” drugs, most will say something like “Well, maybe marijuana should be legal, but drugs like heroin and cocaine should be illegal.” They will base this opinion on the fact that these drugs are “dangerous” and that keeping them illegal saves lives. This is absolutely not true, of course; it’s actually easier to obtain illegal drugs than legal (prescription) ones, particularly for minors; the “war on drugs,” after spending hundreds of billions of dollars, has done next to nothing to stop the flow of narcotics into the country, much less squelch people’s desire to use them. But the larger point is that such a view, held by the majority of Americans, is in direct opposition to the value of individual freedom.

There are many other examples of this. People who claim to value freedom of speech oppose pornography. People who claim to value the pursuit of happiness oppose gay marriage. People who claim to value freedom of religion want Muslim mosques restricted. People who claim to value civil liberties support the Patriot Act. And on and on. Inconsistency, and yes, hypocrisy, in political values is so widespread and normal now that it is barely recognized anymore as such.

People often lay claim to values until those values clash with an opinion they hold, then chuck them out the window like a piece of trash. But if you only hold a value until it applies to someone or something you don’t like, then it isn’t really a value at all. It’s just a convenient opinion not tied to any deeper meaning, and a poorly understood one, at that. Because often, the test of our principles is how well we’re able to uphold them when applied to aspects which we find distasteful. We may hate pornography, for example, but if we don’t understand that it is protected by our right to free speech, then we aren’t really standing against pornography but rather, against the principle of free speech.

This idea is equally important in our personal lives because our values determine our actions and ultimately the outcome of our lives. What we value makes us who we are. If those values are well thought out and consistent, we’ll have conviction in applying them, confidence in their rightness, and a clear path to achieving our goals; we will also be credible, dependable, principled people whom others respect and trust. Conversely, without consistent values, we’ll have or be none of these things. Our beliefs and actions will shift with the prevailing winds and we’ll mimic popular opinion, guessing at what’s right and at what we want. Inconsistent values are not values at all.

Living a principled life means understanding your values to the point that you can apply them consistently and universally. If you come up against an idea that seems to clash with your values, it is not the idea you must question or dismiss, but rather, the value itself. If you don’t learn to do this, the result will be an illogical, conflicted worldview that lacks grounding in any deeper principles and has little power to propel you successfully forward. Just because this is the norm today doesn’t make it right, and certainly not a desirable way to go through life.