Why Values Are Still Important: A Few Things About Life and Society

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We talk a lot about values but sometimes suffer from a lack of enacted values. We are a big society and are often anonymized by the hundreds if not thousands of people we see every day. The behaviors we have responsibility over are sometimes left to the side when convenient. Having values is important for rejuvenating our sense societal cohesion. Lack of enacted values will likely have the opposite impact on social cohesion (and a unified sense of national purpose.)

There are a few people I have met over the years who not only talk about their values but actually live by them. They seem to be a little different, slightly more insightful, considerate and developed souls that have seen lots of life and came to some conclusions.

They are the soft whispers of wisdom that encourage of the rest of us to be better. Intuitively they know some people won't be able to incorporate and display high values but they have the persistence to live their values in a genuine way.

That is different than talking about values but doing the opposite when opportunities should have turned these fluffy words into lived and enacted values. I disagree with some opinion makers that indicate that there are more of these hypocritical value emulators today but I do agree that we have become confused about the benefit of these basic values. Maybe even more confused about when to apply them.

I've seen the power of incivility and hate being honored and sanctioned in society while honesty and values snuffed out by indifference and sometimes condemning disdain. It can be subjective where and when values are enacted and praised or when lack of values are cherished. Some value others and some value just themselves.

The concept of universalizing our values means that the principles of values apply across different cultures and peoples universally (You only know this if you have the experience to know the deep similarities between people.). The same acts and values are essentially the same for different people (Stealing is illegal in most societies but how that is defined/laws are often society specific.).

We can't subjectively apply our values to help our friends/race/religion and switch those values when someone is seen as different and still maintain with integrity the fabrics of society over the long term. Its an inherent block where different rules for different people apply. Such different values and treatments lead to perceptually different societies and of course increased societal clash/conflict. This is one reason why I encourage our institutions (govt, law enforcement, schools, etc...)  to have basic shared values that apply universally to everyone that is an American. (See Universalism). 

I think the good news is that we were sort of forced to be more aware of our indifference to certain central values through the pains of the pandemic and rise of extremism. We have opted to take a few minutes to think about who we are and where we are going; as a nation as individuals. I advocate for a universal Americanism and believe that is the path through the fog of short-sighted ethnic, ideological and religious differences that often lead to different values, laws, and outcomes.