A question

Do you in your life value some lives more than others?
Would you protect and defend some before others?

As a jedi do you see all lives as having equal value.
Human lives I am thinking of.

I love my family and friends more than anything in the world. Its my biggest flaw. You get my loyalty, you get it for life (heck, if my ex showed up at my door, right now, after all the stuff she did and ignoring me for a year, begging for my help, I'd be helping her because I still care for her as a friend and a human being, even if she's really not deserving of it). So yeah, I do value the life of those I know a lot, insanely so.

But do I value them more than those I, say, randomly pass on the street? No. Everyone is so wonderfully and chaotically complex as myself. Everyone has a story, and I'd be damned if I could have stopped their story from ending short because I wanted to protect someone else that I deemed "more valuable".

But, say, in an instance where I had to literally choose the life of someone I know and love over the life of a stranger... I know I'd be biased. If there was a way I could save both, I'd be choosing that. I'm not one to be prone to waste, and that includes wasting human lives. If there was literally no other option other than choosing a life to save, yes... I'd be saving the person I know. That's how I am.

Eh... I don't like these lines of questioning. Philosophy has little hold in the knee jerk of the moment, especially a moment where you're expected to make that decision. Its why a parent will jump in front of a car to save their child, why a teacher will shelter students in an emergency. Because they care about them. Yes, if they could save a random person I'd hope they would, and I know I would... but not at the cost of someone I care about, because I know, when push comes to shove, I wouldn't think twice about it unless I saw a way to save everyone involved, even at cost to myself.

I love my family and friends more than anything in the world. Its my biggest flaw

Where you say this, so NOT a flaw a wonderful quality from my perspective: )

elizabeth wrote: I love my family and friends more than anything in the world. Its my biggest flaw

Where you say this, so NOT a flaw a wonderful quality from my perspective: )

Agreed, but I see it as a shortcoming as a Jedi, to fully embrace what it is to acknowledge the Force as I see it. Everyone should be equal in my eyes, and they are, but obviously not enough to sacrifice those I love for. Thankfully, or at least I hope, I won't be in such a situation. If it does happen... bleh. again, don't like these types of questions.

Yeah in my head everyone is equal
In the moment not so easy

Action and view are different things obviously but the later evokes causality beyond our own selves which is out of our control. While the former invokes causality within ourselves only until if it emerges as action. To understand how the difference is relevant to your question IMO, it's the causal footprint from both of them seen as responsibility.
What will happen from action and how can we be responsible for it, compared to what might happen from view and how can we be responsible about dealing with it.
We cannot be responsible for others actions or views, but we must be responsible for ours and the likely impact they will have to others and ourselves. So while we might want to be equal to others in the now, our existence both invokes and evokes impact which we must/should/probably will end up being responsible for down the road by cause and effect - and its this which we cannot share out equally.
While that all might sound morbidly paralyzing, its gotta be seen in the context of the reality that everyone is in the same boat as different measures of responsibility (including shared responsibility) emerges from all action among its participants. The only place where responsibility is usually defined and expected though is in systems of rules like laws, and workplace duty - the rest of the time it just tends to be a dynamic imprecise concept suffering terrible subjective bias from everyone which we call trust.

In my opinion, the Code does not say anything about the value of any life, much less how it stacks up against other values, or the values of other lives. One can of course argue, that the way it encourages us to look past personal sensibilities lest they get in the way of making the sort of choices we would not seek to regret later, and hence an argument can be made that we should try to not let our personal feelings towards some lives over others make our decisions for us. But I wouldn't dare say that it tells us directly how to feel. In my interpretation, a much stronger sentiment is one of stoicism. While we do not, as a matter of fact, always value all lives equally (or indeed at all, in some cases), the point is to not be controlled by such emotions to an unhealthy extent. It is not that we should feel ashamed or otherwise bad for experiencing the feelings we naturally grow, for that would arguably indeed be an unhealthy reaction, born of a somewhat... let's for lack of a better term say "obsessive" observance of doctrine. The initial emotion it is a reaction to, however, is not.

And yes, I do value some lives more than others. To me, not even all humans are equally valuable. And I feel no shame in either feeling this way, or admitting to it like I just did. I understand that my subjective assessment of the lives around me is just that, and that when it comes to making judgements that go beyond the strictly personal, I must try my best and set aside as much as possible my biases of this sort. I think there is nothing wrong with having them, so long as that much self-awareness can be maintained about it.

To believe in the inherit worth of all and to act as such is - for me- the most difficult thing in my path I have found but - it is to the same effect - the most rewarding and the most yielding action I can blossom.
To be equall to every one - to be as valid as the next heart - is something my ego fights every day. I wasn’t raised like that. When I rely on my values virtues and vocations - I find a different sight focus and even thought. I do have value of frequency. That which I frequent I like. As far as life is concerned, I have made a choice to value all life equally. My choice. The balance of this makes me act as such.
Now, as a code I choose , one of many I have, my version of selfless I practice defends myself and others. Which and how is strictly to me as it is to every individual. I have a caution as far as not getting over used or overly fatigued as far as compassion is concerned. I urge others to seek out their own balances and choices and make up their own balances- we are human - we have that right.

The stranger or the loved one. How very Green Goblin. :laugh: :evil:

Of course I value some lives more than others. I think the only person I'd choose to save before I saved my wife would be my dog and even that's just because she'd kill me if I let the dog die. Lol.

Do I believe that objectively my wife is more important than any other person? No. But to me she is. To you she isn't and that's ok.

I protect the people I value and they protect the people they value and eventually everyone has someone watching out for them. It seems like the least we humans can do for one another.

I protect the people I value and they protect the people they value and eventually everyone has someone watching out for them. It seems like the least we humans can do for one another.

Thank you Goken that is a beautiful way of looking at things.