Traditional values

He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where "traditional values" meant "hang someone." In general, if someone's main argument in favor of their propositions/ideas is "traditional values", this means there actually isn't any other rational argument worthy of attention. For example, "caring about children" is a very, very old traditional value, yet people speaking up against child abuse usually don't resort to this rhetoric, instead choosing more practical and immediate arguments. A return to traditional values is an oft-spoken desire of conservatives. It's part of fundamentalist psychology.

Traditional values include, but are not limited to, the many ideals listed here.

Commonly spoken of

 * Prayer in schools
 * (Young Earth) Creationism as science in schools
 * Abstinence only education in schools
 * Outlawing abortion
 * Outlawing homosexual acts
 * Outlawing premarital sex
 * Encouraging women to be skivvies

Not so commonly spoken of
Probably because those who trumpet "traditional values" the loudest do not actually adhere to them.


 * Honor
 * Integrity
 * Charity
 * Modesty
 * Work ethic (only when it does not involve whoever is speaking of it)
 * Family values (the real kind, not their redefined sort)

Skeletons in the closet

 * Slavery
 * Anti-Semitism
 * Feudalism
 * Women as chattel property
 * Infanticide, especially of females
 * Endemic pedophilia child abuse
 * Poor sanitation
 * Entrenched racism
 * Life expectancy not exceeding 70 30 50 years
 * Marriageable age of 9 7 12
 * Lynch mob for heretics and minority groups
 * Capital punishment for heretics
 * Corporal Capital punishment for sexual deviancy
 * Capital punishment for, well, everything. "It's hanging for a sheep, or murder in the first degree."
 * 80 hour work week
 * No paid holidays
 * Safety at work regulated by the free market natural selection
 * Health care provided by the free market natural selection
 * Famine
 * Plagues
 * Banditry
 * Interdiction Prohibition of divorce
 * Literacy rates not exceeding 50 10 1 percent
 * Censorship of science
 * Human sacrifice
 * Honour killings
 * Security Love  Happiness Any positive emotion considered a privilege of the elite

Morris Dancing
On the other hand, Morris Dancing is also a traditional value, and nothing's better than dressing up silly, getting drunk, and dancing in public, to say nothing of the redeeming social value of learning to deal with the symbolism of grown men shaking their jingly bells and swatting their big, thick, knotty sticks together in a mature, responsible fashion.

Values Party
Unsurprisingly, the Values Party, a political movement operating in New Zealand from 1972 to 1990, achieved no notable electoral success before it morphed into the local Green Party.

Graphic arts
Graphic artists formerly recognised three traditional values: dark, light, and mid-tone. Societies where graven images are frowned upon generally make do with line and colour, rather than skate too close to realistic rendering with all those shades of grey. Noted home scholar Ansel Adams, being dissatisfied with just three zones of value, used some larger prime number, perhaps nine.