as suggested, we have values and sometimes those values
clash…we have seen the value of justice and the value of
security clash in the last couple of decades…
the pursuit of wealth is a value
and the idea that we are more then just consumers/producers is
a value and clashes with the pursuit of wealth…
the conflict between values is strong and often violent…
the clash of values between the west and the values of the
middle east have clashed for over a thousand years…
in the U.S, you have “rural” values and “urban” values that have clashed
for over a century…beginning in the 1880’s, during the rise of the
industrial revolution in the U.S… this is the watershed moment
when the industrial revolution began and that created this “rural” vs
“urban” values clash…for it is clear that events like the industrial revolution
and the Crusades create and changes values… our values change and adapt
to events just like we change and adapt to events…
and how do we resolve conflict in values? oftentimes with violence…
look at every single war or violent conflict as a conflict of values…
sometimes the conflict is over the interpretation of a value sometimes
the conflict is over two separate values competing with each other…
greed is a value and a driver of many conflicts…
thus many religions try to discourage greed…
Buddhism for example, makes greed a principle reason
for misery in the world and one of the creators of suffering…
and Buddhism is all about ending suffering, not on a
society or group or culture basis, but on an individual,
personal basis…
in Catholicism, greed is consider one the seven deadly sins…
and a value to be avoided…
I will have more to say about this in a later post…
we return to conflicting values… in some ways, we can consider
government as a means of competing value resolution…
we use government to mediate between competing values…
an impartial referee as it were…but what if, what if the government is
no longer an impartial referee… what if the government takes sides…
that is in part, what has created many of the difficulties of our society…
the government has been bribed to take the side of the wealthy and powerful
and thus abandon the economic lower classes to their fate…
thus the mistrust of the people for the government…
if we play a game and the referees make all the calls favoring one
side or the other, the players will cry foul and demand changes…
this is what has happened in America today… we no longer have fair
and impartial referee’s and America is calling for changes… thus we
got IQ45 as president…this is a sense of justice that people have…
the treating of people equally… and that idea is being violated
with the preference toward the rich and powerful against the middle and
working poor class… we are calling foul and asking for changes…
if there are no changes, then violence will happen as the middle class
and the working poor try to force the government to be equal in its
treatment of its citizens…the middle and working class don’t want
special or preferential treatment, we just want to be treated equally…
and not just be treated equally bad, but equal with the wealthy and powerful…
and that demand for justice is strong in people…
is this idea of justice innate? no, it is learned… we see injustice
and we learn what it means as we grow up… thus we often attack
kids in school we called “teacher pets”… they were treated differently…
we see injustice from an early age…and some respond with
calls of indifference and calm and others respond with calls for
violence… it is the difference between people’s nature for what they
call for…
so conflicts in values… what is the solution?
conflicting values is perhaps the major problem
in society and we must approach this issue head on…
it is the basis of and reason for government…
what is your answer?
Kropotkin