Family values vs. Truth and Justice

The Academy for the Constitutionally Challenged ^ | 11/08/02 | Sammy Larbi

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What’s more important: Truth & Justice or “Family Values”

Although meant to be rhetorical, it’s a good question whose answer is surprisingly intuitive and can be arrived at through logic. Undoubtedly, however, he who asked the question has none of this thing called intuition, and most likely knows nil of logic.

Lunatic Liberal Lyndon LaRouche, a mostly unknown and uninfluential “Democratic Presidential pre-candidate” (1) was the man to ask the question on a campaign poster at the University of Houston. I won’t dwell on him, because no one knows or cares about him or his ideas- basically, he is unimportant. However, the way he- and many other mad Libs- would answer this question is important, so I will attempt to dissect the question into its components, with the idea that through logic and intuition we can arrive at the correct answer.

Without a doubt, Truth and Justice are inseparable from any free society- in fact they are a prior and necessary condition for liberty. To prove this, we need to define Truth and Justice, and assume that we can have freedom without the two. Then we need to find a case that contradicts this, which will prove that we cannot be free without Truth and Justice.

Standard dictionary definitions for Truth and Justice will do- we need not philosophize about these, as everyone has some intuitive meaning of them. We take truth to be “conformity to fact or actuality” and justice to be “The quality of being just … Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude … Conformity to truth.” And in case we need to know, just is defined as “Honorable and fair in one's dealings and actions; Consistent with what is morally right” (2). Now that we have our definitions, we attempt to find situations that are not truthful or just, and in some instance limit freedom, to show we cannot have liberty without Truth and Justice.

Case 1
In a free society, people are allowed to make decisions that affect all aspects of their life, and are allowed to pursue life, liberty, and property. If then, my property is confiscated or I “sell” my home to the government or some environmental agency because I have been falsely informed that it is on toxic land, this constitutes fraud. Since fraud is a form of dishonesty, it cannot be the truth. Further, since I have been denied the freedom to own my property through fraud, we see that I cannot be free without Truth.

Case 2
Justice is easy, because above, if the agency that now has my land was not honest and fair in their dealings with me, I have been defrauded, and am not free. However, I think the justice alluded to in the question is a type of “criminal justice,” so I will briefly elaborate. We cannot be free if justice is not done through the prosecution and conviction of criminals. This is self-evident, as by definition criminals deny others of life, liberty, or property through murder, rape, or theft, respectively.

Since we now know the importance of Truth and Justice and what the terms mean, we turn now to find out about “Family Values.”

Most would argue that Family Values are important things in life, but we need to see if this is provable, so we must first define what Family Values are, and what importance they hold. Again, standard dictionary definitions will do, because most have an intuitive meaning of the term. We will take the whole phrase to mean, “The moral and social values traditionally maintained and affirmed within a family” and value to mean “a principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable” (2).

So what are these moral and social values that are maintained and affirmed within a family? Some of the most common include honesty, fairness, and the idea of freedom- along with various other morals and norms taught from religious and secular sources. It’s fairly obvious that the definitions of these also include Truth and Justice as two of the values that are taught within the family. But are they separate items? Can Truth and Justice be found without Family Values? If they are inextricably linked, then Family Values wins more importance hands down, because Truth and Justice are elements of a proper subset of Family Values. On the other hand, if we can have Truth and Justice without Family Values and these Values are not a necessary and prior condition for freedom, then Truth and Justice are more important for our society.

I now show that we cannot have Truth and Justice without Family Values, proving that the values maintained and affirmed within a family are the more important part of the two components of the question.

Since it is entirely possible that a family could choose to teach only Truth and Justice, I need to prove that it is the family that is required to teach these things, and not some other source. Once that is evident, induction shows that additional values taught will not negatively affect our freedom as a society.

Assume that one family fails in having Family Values. By definition, this family has not taught truth or justice to their children. Surely we can still have a free society because someone else can teach the child these values. However, assume two families fail at the task. Then assume it grows and grows until no family practices Family Values. Then who is left to maintain and affirm Truth and Justice with our offspring?

The answer is no one. And we can no longer have a free society.

Sammy Larbi
www.constitutionallychallenged.com

Reference:
(1) The quote is from LaRouche’s website (larouchein2004.net). You can go there to find out the LaRouchian Solution to all the world’s woes.

(2) The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition.