compromise or insist

No, I wouldn't say that that statement reflects an appropriate view.

A persons first duty is to survive and then his ideas may, when the time is appropriate, be presented to his society.

In some parts of the world professing a "belief system" different from that of the rulers (the ones with the guns) may be fatal.

A belief system may be economic, spiritual, or philosophical. The thing about a belief system, whether it be economic or spiritual is that it does not rely on observations or discreet cases to justify itself.

A believe system of, say Capitalism, or Christianity is perfectly willing to deny observations that do not fit the system.

This has caused great harm to humanity in general.

So first, stay alive. Then do what you can do about the abuses of humans and the world in general. You cannot help much if you are killed or marginalized.

Humanity needs the help

i agree wit you at this point.
but here we need a definition of belief. if we make belief here defined as that political ideology or religious gospel, your argument is enough. but we also can widen "belief " to any idea or system of principles one persist to direct his behaviors----such as the way one believes to be the best way to hunt a deer for food, or the method one regards as the most efficient to manage his company. people persist in such beliefs because they somehow think them helpful for their survival or further development. in such situation, how the argument goes. we should note that sometimes one think an idea is useful while it maybe not so useful in effect, regardless of what the others think.

A belief system,IMO, unless based on facts and observations, which is a way of gaining experience is not likely to be effective.

The best way of hunting deer, or running a business, or a life can be based on those three points ie; fact--Are deer known to exist in your neighborhood. Observation-- do other people successfully hunt deer in your neighborhood. Experience--Have you helped other people hunt deer sucessfully? Effective--Is your deer hunting system likely to prove successful?

Taking those points into consideration--Do you believe that your deer hunting is likely to prove successful. Only you can put a value on the experience. And your valuation is probably different than mine.

Value of food to you--Economic
Value of outdoor exersize--Your health
Value of a self sufficiency experiment--Your psychological well being
Value of maintaining a tradition--You reverence to ancesters
Value of providing an ecological balance to the deer herd--Earth Friendly
Value of recreation--Your playtime
Value of doing a "male thing" or female if appropriate--Your self esteem.
Value of a clear conscience--honesty.

The same thing is true of running a business, being an employee, or being a servant of the people (office holder-director)

The sum (with weighting) of all those values, and there are many more, add up to your "personal belief system". And only you can assign your valuation to all the different aspects of life. These values will also change with age and experience so it's not a good idea to burn the bridges behind you.

BUT IMO if you chose a course of action which violates your belief system (principles) you will be unhappy. You cannot do things which violate your principles and be successful. You will merely die a bit younger ( leave a rich young widow due to internalized stresses) than you would have otherwise . IMO again, A course of action that will result in your leaving a rich, attractive, young widow would not be my definition of successful or effective :wink:

Re: compromise or insist

Beliefs refers to those what people give mental acceptance to be truth. They do not necessarily be really true per se, nor command the believers to possess sufficient proofs to convince that they are true. Belief involves only an attitude toward certain proposition, and this do not guarantee the believer of it get any advantage by doing so. Therefore the assertion that compromising one's beliefs is always more harmful than adhering to them is in essence groundless. Wise people could take the advantage both by adhering to adequate beliefs and by compromising undue ones, while fools often fall into trouble because of either untimely persistence or inappropriate compromise.

Although there has no exact consensus achieved by philosophers on how and from where beliefs emanate, it is clear that beliefs play an essential role in many aspects of human culture. For example they provide functional base for religions, ethical systems and political champions to occur and work as they did. Individuals of the society holding some kind of beliefs in rather important for keeping communal integrity and group loyalty. And as to individual person, belief provide effective reference and guide for their behaviors as well as mental satisfaction of the sense of ascription to the community. Committing to some kind of beliefs can direct a person to keep his effort continually on to fulfill his goals, and to some extent, make the effort efficient. Also, psychologically, it could furnish/confer him a good mood in his lives.

Since it is both rational and irrational factors of mind determine the emanation of beliefs, and many other historical and social factors could influence peoples choices as to beliefs, there is no guarantee that all beliefs are beneficial or at least neutral. Thus, appropriate beliefs give out good result while evil beliefs engender disasters. For example, the intense belief of Bill Gate that he was on the right way lead to a exceedingly promising career of computer and software industry promoted him to devote into his career before finishing his university courses, and his perseverance on this belief has made him one of the most succeeded entrepreneur in history. On the contrary, the vile belief of the Nazis of racism lead to a world wide disaster of human beings. If, even part of those zealous Nazis had realized the evil and inhumanity of there belief and made a step toward compromise, the condition of those preys in World War II, at worst, would be not so grave.

Even for those beliefs that are by themselves neutral or obviously blessing or good, it is not so safe to say that it is more harmful to compromise than to insist no matter what the condition. Because the situation in which the beliefs function varies widely, adhering to one belief may be rather instrumental in one occasion while totally ineffective in anther. Furthermore, if two or more beliefs are involved simultaneously in a case, those with less degree should be sacrificed to more significant ones. For example, assume that there is a person who commit to animal protection. It is blessing and commonly viable to fulfill his belief at protect large carnivorous mammals from being hunted ; but if the population of one kind of such animal in some area is too large that the population of those herbivorous animals they prey on could not keep in a reasonable level and the ecosystem is in danger because of this, it is hard for this person continue to insist in protecting the predators. As to another case, if the life of a person, say this animal protector himself, is unprovoked threatened by one of such large animals, the belief to protect animal should definitely give way to the belief to protect human being.

In spite of above argument, it does not follow that any kind of beliefs could be constitutionally compromised. There are many cherished beliefs that have been deliberately proved valuable and effective should never be sacrificed, such as hard work and knowledge is important for succeed, human right, freedom, and equality of opportunity and so forth. These beliefs, although could take different forms, or have diverse explanations, are always necessary to every person, in any nation and any time. It would be more beneficial to adhere to than to compromise them, both for the individuals and for the nation or human civilization as a whole, even there are great difficulties on the way to approach them.

To conclude, the action of compromise by itself is not so harmful, only quitting from those valuable beliefs is detrimental. And not all persistence on beliefs is beneficial, because not all the beliefs are the same good. We should withdraw from those evil or outdate beliefs without demur, compromise those trivial beliefs to those with larger values and insist adhere firmly to those valuable and effective ones without concession.