so we have values… but some values come into competition…
for example, one of the primary values for liberals is justice
and one of the primary values for conservatives is security…
how do we resolve this conflict when one side is pushing for
security and the other side is pushing for justice?
this is a common issue within a society or a culture…
how do we resolve conflicting values? or as William Barrett
put it, conflicting goods…
a group of people want certain values to be a primary goal and
another group wants other values to be the primary goal…
this is reflected in business wanting to maximize their profits
at the cost of hurting their workers/producers…
this is reflected when businesses want to open up wildlife
preserves or national parks and turn them into money making operations and
people want to save and maintain those wildlife preserves or
national parks like Yosemite…
these are conflicts of value that engage parts of or the entire society at large…
the answer in this conflict of values becomes or SHOULD become
the values that prevails really lies within the answer to
the question which is, what values are the values we belief in
AND we should act upon… and the goal determines that… this is why,
in part, why we should create a goal is because the goal decides what
values become the chosen values and we begin to act upon those values…
ok, so let us start from the beginning… we have values and by creating a goal,
we can then know what values are needed to accomplish those goals…
the goal helps us know what values we need… if the goal requires us
to pursue justice, then that is the value we need or if the goal requires us
seek security, then that is the value we seek… the goal decides the value/values…
the Greeks valued arête and that was excellence… now at first this value was
meant to belong to a soldier and the goal was to create better soldiers…
so by having this value, arête, we would have better soldiers…a worthy goal indeed…
the medieval man goal was to reach god and for them, the best value was faith…
that was the value they needed to reach their goal…
the goal and the value reinforces each other…
today, we have values like greed and lust…
what would the goal be if we have greed and lust as our values?
greed and lust as values only serve as values for the pursuit of material goods
and the possession of people… greed and lust really don’t serve any other goal…
for the truth is simple, the possession of goods or people doesn’t fulfill one’s heart…
greed and lust must go on being greed and lust for there is no end in sight
with greed and lust… there is no other goal then the continued pursuit of
goods/people…for greed and lust to be fulfilled, it must posses everything…
and that is not possible… this is why modern capitalism fails… as its operating
values is greed and lust and they can never be satisfied, no matter how much we
posses, it is never enough…that is the failure of our modern age… we can never
posses enough to satisfied greed and lust…as values, they fail us…
greed and lust fail because we cannot ever, ever reach the goal of
greed and lust which is the possession of everything…
this in short, why the modern age has failed and will continue to fail…
because its values can never be completed or reached as a goal…
we must choose other values and other goals… but as we have values
in conflict, such as the left value of justice and the right’s value of security,
how do we resolve these conflict?
by deciding which value is more important right now because
values like all things, must change and adapt to the current conditions…
sometimes the values we need are different then the values we pursue
because we fail to see or to adapt to the changing conditions or environment…
our values must correspond to the current conditions and environment…
our values must reflect what is happening on the ground…
and also reflect the goal that was chosen… that is why I believe
that the right’s goal of security cannot succeed because it is not rooted
in the current conditions and environment on the ground in this time and place…
and the goal to be reached by security is no different then the goals of greed
and lust as it cannot ever, be reached…we cannot ever reach a situation where
we are totally secure…the goal of being secure cannot be reached because no
matter what we do, the goal of being secure cannot be reached… we always will
fall short of being secure…
but the goal of justice, of treating everyone equally, that goal can be reached
because all it takes is everyone be treated equally regardless of position, wealth
or status… and if we achieve justice, then people can then go on and be and do
whatever they want… justice is simply a step along the way…but it can be a final
goal if we wish… that is the beauty of justice being the value we reach for…
it can be both reached and be the value we live by…justice should be the
current value we strive for and perhaps if the situation and environment changes,
we can find another value to strive for…
what value/values would you suggest for our society/ culture?
and what goal would come from these value/values?
Kropotkin