Public v. Private Virtue Nonsense
Clinton’s presidency may have highlighted this debate better than any in recent history, but it is again relevant in the debate in California. I am not going to use this post to talk about my thoughts on gay marriage, but rather to highlight a major flaw in one of the arguments used in support of it, namely “What I do in my private life is my business. It doesn’t affect society or you my nosey neighbor, etc.”
My experience as an HR manager gave me ample evidence that this line of reasoning or rationalization is nonsense. I saw hours and hours wasted, unnecessary confrontations, emotional frailty, and on and on that was a direct result of private lives of employees that were in chaos (either from their own ‘private’ actions or a spouse, child, etc.). You could go to your average school teacher and ask them who is struggling and why and that teacher could show you a large majority of those children who are struggling have issues in the home.
We are the sum of our lifes’ choices (virtuous or otherwise), whether those choices are made in private of public. And the result of those choices are manifest in private and public, whether we realize it or not.
Perhaps the best statement countering this poor line of thinking comes from James E. Faust, who (prior to his full-time service as an apostle for the LDS church) was by profession an attorney and probably saw his fair share evidence of private acts impacting for good an ill society in general.
First, adults need to understand, and our children need to be taught, that private choices are not private: they all have public consequences…It is simply not true that our private conduct is our business. Our society is the sum total of what millions of individuals do in their private lives. That sum total of private behavior has worldwide public consequences of enormous magnitude. There are no completely private choices.
Wise words…
CraigJ said,
August 20, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
I agree 100%
Matthew Piccolo said,
August 20, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Do you have a reference for that Faust quote? I’d like to copy that one down.
DMC the Great said,
August 20, 2008 @ 8:58 pm
Nominally I agree with your point. Private choices do have public impacts. However, I suspect that you and I would disagree as to which private behaviors have negative public impacts and which ones don’t.
Overeating and eating non-nutritious foods are private behaviors with negative public consequences such as increased health care costs and reduced productivity. You undoubtedly noticed that as an HR manager.
Having more children than you can financially support on your own is another private behavior with negative public impacts.
Smoking a little reefer on the weekends, on the other hand, doesn’t have to have negative public impacts (at least compared to alcohol consumption.)
Two men have gay sex in private does not have negative public impacts.
The real challenge with this debate is agreeing on which private behaviors have negative public consequences and which ones don’t.
Lyall said,
August 21, 2008 @ 9:00 am
DMC,
So AIDS is not a negative public impact?
Matthew Piccolo said,
August 21, 2008 @ 9:09 am
The best thing about this quote, and the rest of the talk if you read it, is that James Faust is the token democrat apostle that people mention to say you can be a Mormon and a democrat. Even Pres. Faust was conservative–a conservative democrat–it sounds like. Read the whole talk and you’ll see what I mean.
James E. Faust, “‘Will I Be Happy?’,” Ensign, May 1987, 80
Obi wan liberali said,
August 21, 2008 @ 4:41 pm
You have to be careful how far you take this reasoning. If you interpret the world through this lense, it is easy to make the next step into saying that controlling people’s private actions through the apparatus of the state to force them to live the standards I believe in is justified. Why? Because my values are divine, and your private actions deviate from my divine values.
Before you regulate private actions, the burden should be on the would be regulatorto provide a boatload of evidence that those private actions affect everyone else. Otherwise, you have a recipe for tyranny.
DMC the Great said,
August 21, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Yes, AIDS is a negative impact. Not all gay men have or get AIDS. If gay men take proper precautions, they won’t get AIDS.
If you say that condoms are not 100% safe, I’ll reply that nothing is.
DMC the Great said,
August 21, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
… except total complete abstinence, which most people don’t practice anyway.