Morality and Politics

Personally, I tend to think that most of the disagreements between people occur because we have different rankings of moral values. It's a theme that I interpret as being at the heart of a number of different topics, in things as diverse as ethical dilemma questions, to social policy, to political affiliation. To me, these are the foundations that form our view of the world, and how we each think it ought to work for the best overall outcomes.

While there is a good bit of variation in how people might look at the world, there seems to be a moderately consistent set of core values, as listed below:

http://ift.tt/1S6YDbo

Quote:

Care: cherishing and protecting others; opposite of harm. Fairness or proportionality: rendering justice according to shared rules; opposite of cheating. Loyalty or ingroup: standing with your group, family, nation; opposite of betrayal. Authority or respect: submitting to tradition and legitimate authority; opposite of subversion. Sanctity or purity: abhorrence for disgusting things, foods, actions; opposite of degradation.

For discussion...

• Do you self-identify as liberal or conservative, and strongly or moderately so?
• How do you personally rank those 5 values?
• How do you believe the average liberal would rank them?
• How do you believe the average conservative would rank them?

I'd enjoy deeper discussion around any (or all!) of those values - what you interpret that value to mean, how it fits into your life, and how you believe it fits into the lives and views of other people. Do you think your interpretation is pretty standard? Do you think your view is a bit of an outlier?

To start, I'll give you my views.

Self Identify as: Moderately Conservative. I tend to be slightly more conservative when it comes to fiscal issues like how the government spends money, and whether that expenditure is going to produce a material benefit... but on most social topics I'm quite liberal. I tend to place myself pretty much in the middle, but if I have to pick a side, I think I tend to fall slightly more often on the conservative side of discussions. I tend to be skeptical of new approaches, and I tend to want evidence that a new approach is going to be better than what we have now, even if what we have now isn't working well.

Personal Value Ranking:

• 1 Fairness - equitable treatment and opportunity, outcomes should be substantially driven by merit and capability
• 2 Authority - respect for law and justice, respect for social contract, respect for property and ownership
• 3 Care - avoid harm through maliciousness or negligence, 100% non-aggression principle - don't start it, but I'm not opposed to finishing it decisively; part of my duty is to protect myself, my family, and others from aggression
• 4 Loyalty - I value and protect the wellbeing and success of my family and close friends first, and I extend that outward through varying layers of social relationships
• 5 Sanctity - As a general concept, the sanctity of some concepts is important, although for me this doesn't include any religiously-determined sacred cows

How I believe the average liberal would rank them:

• 1 Care
• 2 Fairness
• 3 Loyalty
• 4 Sanctity
• 5 Authority

How I believe the average conservative would rank them:

• 1 Loyalty
• 2 Authority
• 3 Fairness
• 4 Sanctity
• 5 Care