According to science, human beings (Homo sapiens) have populated the earth for more than 200 thousand years. In this regard, Greek culture considered the cradle of modern Western civilization, has its beginnings in the 12th century BC
However, it was between the 6th and 5th centuries BC that they promoted and developed everything related to philosophy, literature, mathematics, medicine, art, and democracy, among other things.
So, making a brief chronology (6th century BC to 21st century AD) more than 2,600 years have passed. Today there are more than 8.2 billion people on the planet and we have evolved in all fields of human knowledge.
Having made this introduction, I would like to return to the title of this article, because, from my perspective, values and principles have been the same since the beginning of Western civilization.
Therefore, I will begin by commenting that both terms are interrelated, but they are not the same.
- Values are the general pillars that guide our actions and life decisions (they are personal).
- Principles, on the other hand, are specific rules or norms that help us to ground our values in real, concrete and daily situations.
Now, I will share with you a little story of which I was initially a spectator and then a “mediator” if the term is valid.
Like you, I am on the list of several WhatsApp chats, in some with greater participation than others. In one of these chats (where we are more than 10 people), two childhood friends from my beloved Chiclayo, who are very active in it, as they write about everything, from interesting things, cultural, points of view based on various topics to various jokes, a few weeks ago an inconsequential topic of life, escalated to the clouds. So one of them left the chat.
At that moment and “without being invited to the party” I went from my position as spectator to mediator. Today, these friends spoke in private, smoothed out rough edges, and we are all complete in the chat again. Also, at the initiative of another friend, we are going to include two or three rules of participation in the group.
In that sense, when asking ourselves why we could reach an understanding relatively quickly. The answer is simple: both have similar values and principles.
This brief story leads me to conclude that values, when interpreted and validated on a personal level, on a different scale of priorities, can be more permissive, as opposed to principles that are more rigid.
Now, I leave you with a task:
If you had to make a list of 5 values that are transversal to the whole society, what would they be?
Are you doing your homework well (me first) so that in the different areas in which we operate, family, friends, small and large organizations, private or state, we share the same values and principles that our grandparents, parents and future generations had?
As a conclusion, I wish to emphasize that I consider that values such as love, joy, and integrity are not a fad, they are permanent.
Finally, I share with you some phrases that can help us direct the answers to both questions posed.
- Strength and wisdom are not opposite values (Winston Churchill).
- Don’t look for things to change, look for yourself to change (Marcus Aurelius).
- I want to die a slave to principles, not to men (Emiliano Zapata).
- Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive (Dalai Lama).
Dear reader, I invite you to consciously deploy your values and principles wherever you are and whoever you are with. Be assured that our society will become better and better.
Are we going to continue without faltering, rowing against the current?
