Blog Posting #6

A lot of people think that the existence of values in humans is the direct result of our higher cognitive ability. While this may hold some truth, values, (in a community sense,) are actually an evolutionary tool used by species that behave in a social manner, such as humans, gorillas, or wolves. At their core, values are simply rules that govern how a member of a group should behave in order to maximize their chances of procreating. In less intelligent species, this could be anything from marking your territory to having a large and lustrous mane. These “values” in other species are easy to spot when you know what to look for, and are pretty congruent across the entire population.

However, when we begin to look at creatures capable of highly complex thought, (ie. Humans) we see a multitude of different values that vary from person to person, time period to time period, society to society, etc. For example, while some ancient cultures glorified violence and war, most cultures today value intelligence and peace-making skills over prowess on the battlefield. It could be argued that the diversity in values stem from varied environments, but that wouldn’t explain things like why some cultures value abstinence until marriage.

I think that up until recently, most people have inherited values from their family and community members, and have not examined why they value those things, or why those values are important. I am happy to see that recently, our society has embraced the practice of questioning our motivations, and many individuals have started to develop their own values rather accepting those that society imposes on them.

From a fraternity standpoint, I know that when I first joined DU, I merely acted in a way that was congruent with my own values, instead of following the principles of the fraternity. If my actions happened to align with one of the values of DU, it was sheer coincidence. If I ever did anything in the name of one of our principles of the fraternity, it was because I was told to do so. I was indeed spending time on things I valued, but the things I valued were acceptance by my brothers instead of following the principles of DU. It was not until I began to really think about our principles that I started to realize how the values of DU aligned with my own values. It also forced me to consider changing certain values that I lived my life by. That’s why I encourage my brothers to reflect upon the founding principles of our fraternity, and question why our founding fathers put such a high emphasis on them. It’s only by fully understanding our values that we are able to act according to them.

Currently, I value freedom, evolution, improving the lives of others, and my own personal happiness.

Freedom is something that I could not imagine living without, and something that I think all people deserve. As long as I live, I will fight for every human being’s life to behave in any way they wish, so long as it has no adverse affect on anyone else. However, most things that we would consider freedoms, such as freedom of religion, speech, etc. have a lot of unnoticed affects on other members of our society. Because of this, I like to stay as educated as possible on any controversial issue of freedom before I take a side. For instance, while I strongly oppose the poor treatment of women in most Islamic cultures, many of those women are perfectly happy with the lifestyle. I would have to understand the culture a lot better before I would act to change it.

I think that evolving and growing in order to maximize the full potential of humanity is the single greatest cause a person can get behind, whether that be from researching technological advancements, breaking down cultural barriers, or promoting the general happiness of one’s fellow human beings. In accordance with this, I spend a lot of my free time learning about the properties of the universe and world around me in an effort to one day be a part of the evolution of our society.

I also value improving the lives of the people around me. Most of what I do falls into this category, whether that be working on behalf of my fraternity brothers, giving to a philanthropy, or just helping out some random stranger in their time of need. I do these things because they make me feel good, and because I know that I have the ability.

Last, but not least, I value improving my own personal happiness. This can usually be achieved by acting in accordance with my other 3 values, but I do take some time out each day for “me” time, where I vow to not get anything productive accomplished, and just focus on enjoying life.

Even though most of what I do does align with my values, I know that there is more I can do to be congruent with them. In order to accomplish this, I need to change up my schedule a bit. My schedule doesn’t have a ton of free time, so I will probably need to cut into my sleep time. Despite how much I enjoy sleeping, I know that when I am on my deathbed, I won’t wish that I would have slept more often. In the immortal words of some dude, “I can sleep when I’m dead.”