Musings about Standards, Principles, Values

[jnos]

This reply from Falcon to Lon's post on banning, got me thinking. I bet most of you knows how that goes when your brain takes you from one thing to another until you can't even follow along.

[QUOTE-Falcon]But I'll be DAMNED if I have to walk around on eggshells so I don't offend some prissy
individual with standards higher than mine.[/QUOTE]

(Falcon I hope you're OK with my using your reply for my own purposes. )

How do others of you think about Standards, Principles, Values?

To me, all three of those essentially mean the same thing. "Ethics for living" might be another. In the quote it mentions "higher" standards. Do you consider others to have higher or lower standards--or just different?

From my upbringing with repeated reinforcement of heritage/family/church values, I had pretty rigid beliefs. I went along judging myself and others by my built-in scale. I thought these same values applied to everyone. I was pretty miserable and didn't know why. It must have been everyone else making me miserable.

Now I find the whole concept totally inappropriate and almost laughable. At some point I realized my values applied only to me. They did not apply to others who had other principles and beliefs. That realization changed my life!

Any similar experiences?

Disagreements?

Other thoughts?

 

[Warrigal]

I was once as judgemental as Oliver Cromwell but I matured.

Now, having discovered my own feet of clay I am now more forgiving, more tolerant of weakness, but not of wickedness that is freely chosen.

I do try to live by these lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet

This above all- to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

 

[Underock1]

I have made it my tag line.

 

[BlunderWoman]

This is a very interesting topic, though not so easy for me to answer. Ethics and values can really encompass a large area. I would say my own sense of honour is important to me & that entails my own sense of ethics and values. I would like to believe I am a 'live and let live' kind of person.. that is what I'd like to believe. In all honesty, I can get pretty annoyed by other people and judgy too. I'm not so proud of that, but it's true. I don't usually vocalize it, but it's in my head & yes I still have the gritty nasty vice of gossip at times. I try not to gossip because I generally regret it later, but alas I still do it at times. So, the lower form of my self still overtakes the higher form of myself & I am always at a struggle to be the best me that I feel I should be. There are some areas I won't fudge on. Promises are very important to me and it seems to me that they get thrown around these days like confetti & are not so important to many, but I consider keeping a promise a sacred thing. Do I want to be judgy ? No , I don't. But I'm a lesser human & there lies the problem. Sometimes I think to myself " What an ass." Then later I might feel bad I thought that about someone..not always..sometimes I'm convinced they are in fact an ass. & I'm sure someone out there is thinking the same thing about me.

 

[Underock1]

This is a very interesting topic, though not so easy for me to answer. Ethics and values can really encompass a large area. I would say my own sense of honour is important to me & that entails my own sense of ethics and values. I would like to believe I am a 'live and let live' kind of person.. that is what I'd like to believe. In all honesty, I can get pretty annoyed by other people and judgy too. I'm not so proud of that, but it's true. I don't usually vocalize it, but it's in my head & yes I still have the gritty nasty vice of gossip at times. I try not to gossip because I generally regret it later, but alas I still do it at times. So, the lower form of my self still overtakes the higher form of myself & I am always at a struggle to be the best me that I feel I should be. There are some areas I won't fudge on. Promises are very important to me and it seems to me that they get thrown around these days like confetti & are not so important to many, but I consider keeping a promise a sacred thing. Do I want to be judgy ? No , I don't. But I'm a lesser human & there lies the problem. Sometimes I think to myself " What an ass." Then later I might feel bad I thought that about someone..not always..sometimes I'm convinced they are in fact an ass. & I'm sure someone out there is thinking the same thing about me.

You seem to me to be putting up as good a fight to be a decent human being as anyone could ask. I too some times think to myself "What an ass." but I am usually referring to myself, so I know what I'm talking about.