Chinese Value Judgments

I did an exercise last International Law class. I asked the whole class to rank certain values: the most astonishing thing to me is that many students placed Family above Human Life. Astonished, I asked the students who chose this ordering why they did so. I had some pretty good reasons why Human Life should always be ordered above Family: for instance: If one values Human Life first, then Family life is notedly valued highly as well: why not just value all life equally and then value Family second, in order to ensure that we are all alive before we start picking favorites.

Some stalwart students held their ground, explaining that life without family is not worth living. To be fair, most students chose Human Life above all, and some even placed freedom second, or in a few cases first. I tried to list some examples where, one's family is alive, but perhaps in prison, and while it is painful, it is better than death. That life, even restricted life is better than no life at all. I believe thaty some students are more comfortable with the absolute principles of great figures like William Wallace, Thomas Moore, and others valuing honor above life. They have a more realist viewpoint, that while the death or imprisonment of family is not absolute, the hunger for freedom, honor, and love is still absolute, and life must be given for the sake of "real" life (Life with family, food, clothing, and happiness). An example of this I enjoy is that almost every student of mine love, absolutely loves the new TV series: Prison Break, where Scoffield's brother is on death row for a crime he did not commit, and Scoffield intentionally gets sent to prison, and constructs a life endangering scheme to break him out of jail before he is executed.

Also of note, many of my students think I am like Scoffield. That makes me happy.