A spiritual dilemma/ conundrum community virtues and personal virtues

[Buck Edwards]

Are community virtues more important than personal virtues? 

Should we value community virtues over personal virtues or personal values over community virtues? 

Case in point - let's say you have a friend who you deeply care about. You show them compassion. You love them and believe they are capable of good things. But your friend is committing crimes against their community, robbery etc. You can choose to inform the police and alleviate community anxieties, yet you could betray the police and community for the sake of your friend. You want your friend to turn their life around and you're aware that this will be tougher if they're punished for their crimes. Should you betray the community to protect your friend or should you betray your friendship to protect the community. 

Note that you're not having the friendship out of personal gain nor are you careless about the welfare of the community. 

I had been watching a movie recently and the plot of the movie got me thinking about this situation. I'm in a bit of moral conundrum regarding this thought. 

[Buck Edwards]

Sometimes the best solution is to keep everything simple 

 

[Reciprocality]

@Enlightement I think your question is absurd, and that what you are actually asking is how to learn who you are, which is why I cant answer your question, only you will find out if you are a community person or individualistic.

I for instance am embarrassingly individualistic, and if I were to value community virtues over individual virtues I would, explode, or something?

You can not learn who you are except for through being challenged, how to challenge yourself I don't know, but since you have already pointed to the duality itself of the individual vs the collective as important it may benefit you to be challenged in both areas.

When you exemplified your question it become even more absurd, I don't know who our "friend" is and I don't know which "community" we exist in, logic must not be used before we are given a material to work with.

If we treat the friend and the community as mere variables it would again be hard to say what you should do, who do you want to be? What are your goals in life, are there any clear characteristics we can work with?

[Buck Edwards]

@Reciprocality not sure what you found absurd about it. 

[Reciprocality]

@Enlightement Is that right, well if I asked what is most important: water or the sun?

Would you jump the gun and tell me that if right there and then you were thirsty you´d say "water", and this should somehow make me more wise concerning the question itself, that you were thirsty?

It is not that I find it absurd, it is that it becomes absurd through reasoning out your premises, there is no singular rule which works for everyone like you imply, instead some are individualistic and others aren't.