Against Inaccurate Accusations: Don't impose your values on others

In this post I'll be examining the claim that one set of values should not be imposed on another person. A good example of such a context where this accusation is made would be where someone is arguing for a particular law or policy to be instituted.

To dissect this accusation, let's start by examining it further. The claim is basically that one person's values should not be imposed on another person's, because that person has the right to their own values. However, my response is simple: It's ok to impose your values on others because everyone imposes values on others, and it'd be impossible to live life without imposing some of your values on others.

Allow me to give a couple of examples to support my statement. Firstly, consider governments and law. In Australia, various laws exist because they've been passed as bills in parliament, or because they've been established by case law, or what have you. The end result of those various processes is that some things are illegal and some things are legal. The government (through the court system) enforces many propositions and values: murder is wrong and deserves to be heavily penalised, rape is wrong and also deserves serious penalty, marijuana use is not allowable. And so on. The point is: The government is imposing their values on everyone, regardless of whether those individuals agree or not.

Now let's take this to a personal level. Lets imagine you live in a sharehouse, with a few housemates. You wake in the middle of the night, hearing a clanging sound. One of your housemates wakes up too. You go downstairs and discover a robbery is taking place- they've got a bag full of something sounding like jewellery, and are looking through your dvd collection, adding to their bag of goodies. Now imagine you and your housemate physically apprehend the robber and in doing so, hurt him so much that he requires stitches. In the final anaylsis, what have you done? You didn't like the fact that someone was stealing your valuables and intruding on your private property- so you took action. You believe that your home is your private place and that no one else should come in unless you invite them, and that your possessions are your property and no one elses. You have imposed your values on another person.

So, this accusation is clearly wrongheaded and inaccurate. The fact is, the government and it's citizens impose their values on others, and life as we know it actually depends on some values being imposed on others. The question isn't is it ok to impose values on others but rather which values should be imposed on others? This distinction is important because it levels the playing field in any discussion. Once the person making this accusation is forced to admit the error in their thinking, it allows the focus to remain on the issue at hand (the value in question). If this accusation goes unchecked, it gives the accuser some unwarranted high ground because it makes the receiver out to be arrogant and intolerant because they're imposing values on others. As I've outlined here, this is clearly absurd because the society we live in relies on the imposition of certain values on everyone, and we all must impose some values on others in order to function.