Peter Kropotkin: so, what exactly does it mean to
have a “revaluation of values”?
you have the values from your childhood indoctrination, the
myths, biases, habits, prejudices, superstitions of your childhood…
now most people don’t ever have a “reevaluation of values”……
they simply just carry on the values of childhood without ever challenging
them, or without ever having a “reevaluation” of those values
let us take patriotism……. USA, USA, USA, USA, USA…….
We’re number one, we’re number one, we’re number one…
chants taught to us a children, but does the fact that U.S in not
number one ever cross anyone’s mind? a “reevaluation of values”
would have one reexamining the “fact” that American is actually number one…….
but the more important question is really, what does it mean to be number one?
do we hold those values or facts that would suggest that we are number one?
we need to come to an understanding of what a country means and what values
would suggest that we are number one and why is it ever important to claim to
be number?
let us take another value, greed… it has been said and is believed that
greed is good, Gordon Gecko, but upon reflection, is greed actually good?
no, no it isn’t……. take a family… let us imagine a family where
greed is the dominant trait or value of the family…
run out in your mind what would happen in a family where greed
was the dominant value………yep, I see it too… that family
would be one of those dysfunctional families we have seen and heard……
values that keeps a family strong is love and hope and laughter
but values that can and will destroy a family is greed and hate,
and fear……. a family can only survive and prosper by having values
that are positive and upbeat…….greed is not a useful value for
a family to have because it will destroy the family and the family members…
and so goes from the small to the large, greed in institutions like business
and politics will also do the same and for the same reasons…………
greed will, in time destroy institutions in business and government
just as surely as it will destroy families who practice greed as a family value……
so what values are necessary for a family to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a government to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a society and culture to survive and prosper?
as systems are systems all over, pretty much the same values which allow one
system to survive is the same as it will take for any other system to survive…
human systems must have the same values to survive and prosper……
if one system has this value and another system has another primary value
and another system has another primary value, the systems cannot work
together or function together……… it is like trying to mate a cat with an elephant…
the two system are too diverse to ever create anything…the two biological systems
are incompatible and so is two systems with a different value systems…….
communism has one value system and capitalism has another value system…
they are not compatible with each other… for them to function together,
they must share the same values………
kinda like couples, if couples don’t share the same values, they will
not last… the same principle that works for a couple works for
institutions and works for governments… for different systems
to work, they must share the same values………………. and we cannot have
greed being the value of the economic system and the main value
for our political system being sacrifice…………
our various systems must share the same values or they won’t work……
so we must define and understand the values upon we base all our systems
upon…………. and such values as greed and hate and anger cannot be the
base values for any system because those values will cause the collapse of
a system because of the instability those values bring into a system……
values that are stable are the values we must install into our system and
any system… values live love and peace and charity and honesty…
we cannot have as our base values, values that destabilize a system…….
and greed is a value that destabilizes because it puts the objects of the greed
before the human being…… life must come before any value…for it is the values
that give life meaning, but life exists before the values……………life takes precedence
over values…………
as the wife wants to go shopping, I must leave you……"
K: ok, back… so let us try this…
how are we going to connect values with actions?
we have a value, so what are we going to do with it?
what action do we take regarding said value?
how do we turn values into action?
as people, the usual course of action is to try something and
then make a judgment based on how it worked out…
the end justifies the mean…we usually base our
understanding of our actions is based on the results…
so, I understand that the result of hitting my idiot 12 year old boss,
will end badly, so I don’t do it… the results is simply not worth the
effort…and at no point, do values enter into this equation…
but what if, what if we start with values and then decide our actions…
instead of thinking about something based on the ends or the means…
we start with the values we have reevaluated and now
hold to be true… this approach has nothing to do with
any question of the end or the results or the means to achieve any
such goal… we begin with the values we have accepted…
I begin with the value of understanding… I understand
corporate wants very young managers because they are easily
duped and they won’t put up with corporate bullshit…
(in reality, the store manager is 26, yep, I have tennis shoes older
then him and probably smarter then him too)
anyway…….that is exactly who corporate want in charge of the store,
a philosophy, a rather stupid and ignorant one, but nevertheless a
way to go……. so I can despise this moron but it won’t do me any good…
I can simply accept the fact and move one…
so punching this idiot won’t change a thing… it is a rather pointless
exercise, so I just go on doing what I have always done with managers,
and that is just studiously ignore them…don’t engage, don’t talk with them…
avoid them, I don’t even say hi to him… I just do my thing…
so, I begin with the value, not with the action and I derive the action
from the value… the results or the end, never enter into the picture…
so, we have a new understanding of our Kantian question,
what are we do to? we begin with the values and then
we create actions that take those values into account…
but we begin first and foremost with values…
and every action afterward, we derive from our values…
not we act and then understand the values later… no,
this is a reevaluation of how we are to act……….
not just a reevaluation of values, but of action……
we begin with the value of say, justice… which as I have defined
it is equality… you must have justice practiced with equality to be
justice… so, we begin with justice/equality and then and only then
do we act… we use our values to define our actions…
but the values must come first and then we act from values and
we don’t take the results into consideration when we act…
we simply act from the values… if the values are the right values
for that action… the results will turn out fine………
but if the values are the wrong values and then we act upon those
wrong values, then then action and the results will end up badly……
so we take into consideration the results when we decide if the
values were the right values for that action………
values and actions are simply two aspects of the same thing…
I have an action I must take, I need a new job after being treated
crappy for the last 11 years… so, I don’t look at results, I look at
the values… and then and only then do I look at a solution for
my problem… I use values to decide how I am to act and then the action
must have the right values to succeed…
values and action must be equal to there to be any success……
the values must be appropriate to the action/situation for their
to be any success……….
If I bring a value like hate or greed or anger to a situation like
a relationship, the relationship will fail, no question about it…
but if I bring into a relationship values like love, passion, charity,
hope, equality/justice… the relationship will have a far, far, far better
chance of succeeding…………………
different situations require different values……. we cannot plug into
a random situation any random value… the value a situation
needs is distinct and every situation needs different values…
so we must learn to connect the right values with the right situation…
if we are at war, we cannot fight with an enemy with love and peace…
we must engage in that war with the values that are appropriate to that
situation… but to avoid war and to hold the peace, different values
like love and peace and compassion may just be the right values
to prevent war and keep the peace……………
so we begin by understanding our values… what are our values
after an reevaluation of values… from the values of our childhood indoctrinations
to our values that are appropriate to our adulthood and our adult situation…….
after we discover those values then, then we begin by applying those values
to the situations we find ourselves in… or, or we can create situations in which
we can apply our values to……… we can begin with the values and then
create actions around those values we have……. if we value love, then
we try to commit actions in which the value that drives those actions are love……
if justice is the value, then we commit actions in which justice is the goal of
our actions… we use justice to create actions in our live… and justice means
equality… so we are just to people by being equal to people…… we don’t treat
someone different because they are black or white or gay or old or man or women……
justice is when we treat everyone we meet equally……… we are just when
we treat people equally…
justice is the value and we treat people with equality and that is the action
or we look at the action we see what value will work in that situation………
finding the right value for the right situation is hard, very hard and
we must practice that every single day……….
so, what are you values and how will they create new actions for you?
Kropotkin