so I might hear someone say, Kropotkin, you have rejected
actions in favor of values? say it ain’t so, joe……….
the question of values and actions seems complicated but it really isn’t……
we find our values, be it love or passion or compassion (see the nearness of
these two words, to be compassionate one needs passion)
anyway, we find our values and then we take actions……. the actions
will tell if our values are good values, values worth having……
the actions validate our values, we use actions to understand our values,
and we use actions to determine if our values are useful in any given situation…
I have used a relationship analogy earlier, a man who has hate as his values,
won’t be very successful in his relationships and the actions of the relationship
will tell him that his values are wrong… he uses hate instead of love
in a relationship and the relationship fails… he shouldn’t think it was
the other person who failed, he should think about the values he brought
into the relationship…… the values define the actions… if he has
values that allow the relationship to grow and prosper, then he has
values worth keeping… the action, the success of the relationship,
tells him that………… our actions are meant to confirm or deny the
worth of our values… we act and then by that action, we can know
if our values are good…………the action is meant to help us understand
our values……………. the values comes first, then the action……
our understanding of action and values is wrong…………
we must begin with and end with values… the actions only
tell us if we have values that can allow us to engage with our actions…
so life is a question of values, not of actions… we act in support of our values…
so the question of life is a question of what values do we have and when actions
succeed or fail, then that action should lead us to explore other values that will
allow us to succeed… values are what allow actions to succeed or fail………
and so we must focus on the values, not on the actions…for actions can only
tell us if our values are right or wrong………
Kropotkin