Values

Oct 13 20:57 UTC 1996

Well--today's major discussion topic was personal values, and their 
origin and development.  Epistemology and metaphysics also came up.
There seems to be no doubt that we are a highly principled group
(most of us) but it was interesting to me how much people felt that
they had developed their own value systems, through introspection,
or analysis, or whatever, as opposed to having accepted some
pre-existing "value-system."  No one took the bait of my suggestion
that univerities brainwash innocent girls into becoming feminist
ideologues... (actually, I was paraphrasing.)

response 2 of 5:

Oct 13 23:25 UTC 1996

It was very interesting to me to find Louis Raths' model of clarifying one's
values.  He suggests there are 7 levels of the process of valuing.
1. Prizing and cherishing one's beliefs and behaviors.
2.  Publicly affirming them, when appropriate.
#.  Choosing one's beliefs from alternatives. 
4.  Choosing after consideration of consequences.
5.  Choosing freely.
6.  Acting on one's beliefs.
7.  Acting with a pattern, consistency and repetition.

In other words, we may cherish our belief in freedom of speech, but there are
six more levels in the process, the final one of which leads to behaving like
Keosha Thomas [I think that's her name] who got national press for protecting
a Klan supporter from being beaten during a protest last summer in A2. She
is a young African-American high school student. (or was at the time).