A few thoughts on values...
I'll start by agreeing with Michael when he said:
>From a view that values occur in a complex adaptive environment and
>are themselves complex adaptive linguitic phenomena, we can see this
>question from a somewhat different perspective. In this view, there
>are no single values. Values do not exist separately from each
>other. Values exist only as networks or clusters which are all
>interrelated yet not in any necessary fixed relationship to each
>other. These values emerged from an interplay with a social
>environment and continue to emerge in similar interplays. The
>relationship between them is always at least influenced by the
>environment.
Now I'll ramble on a bit sparked by Rol's comments..
What comes through from my reading of his post is a perception
that values are in some way like a light switch that one can turn on or
turn off. If one does not uphold a common set of values, or "self-evident
truths" ('on' position), then there is void, an absence of value and of
thinking about value ('off' position). Or, at least, he seems to say that
void is possible, people can act without evaluating. And life without
aspiring toward an agreed upon set of self-evident truths portends a
ferocious, atavistic struggle of some sort, a chaos of conflicting values.
(Which, I'm sure, anyone on the internet may fear is already upon us...
;-))
I think there is a crucial difference between "not having a set
of agreed upon values" and "not having values". Not having a single set
of agreed upon values, would seem, to me, the welcome result of the
interaction of reasoning, emotionally complex, emphathic, context
sensitive, creative individuals who, to some extent, decide their own
fates. It is, in a sense, a recognition of the flexibility and diversity
in human potential, and a renouncing of the desire for standardization of
roles and models, for a pret a' porter life. "Not having values" evokes
in me conceptions of space before quantum theory. The ideas of the
universe before Einstein. Void. Nothing. Vacuum. The fear that without
a controlled rationality, one would fall into the abyss. In a different
way, it also reminds me of my childhood in New England where I was taught
that emotions were weaknesses, and that one could "shut off" one's
emotions to become an objective, rational thinker. Literature,
philosophy, and the arts were considered weekend activities for when one
had attained "financial security". Self-knowledge and creative
self-expression were rather suspect signs of selfishness. One lived to
work, not work to live. Well, of course, now I know that's a lot of
gobbledygook, but I see traces and echoes of this all the time when I'm
home.
I love considering that there are no absolute values. An infinite
number of stories to be told, adventures to be lived. Endless
possibilities for creating one's life. Rejoicing in the generative
potential of multiple values. On the other hand, I don't see all the
villainy out there as life without values, as a rough-hewn "human nature".
The values are there, clear as a beacon. Perhaps it just comes down to
the fact that in the long history of trying to distill the emotions out of
one's statements, searching for a succinct sense of clarity, the effective
capacity to convince, cajole, or teach is lost (and you tacitly devalue
emotionality). They don't touch a chord, they don't inspire. "Thou shall
not kill" has no spunk to it. Stories are so effective in communicating
value, yet they are pooh-poohed all the time as somehow not "serious" or
"scientific". Yet, as Ben Okri put it: "To poison a nation, poison its
stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself.
Beware of the story-tellers who are not fully conscious of the importance
of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art:
they could unwittingly help along the psychic destruction of their
people."
Stories are told all around us, permeating values throughout the
fabric of our lives. TV, school lesson plans, cinema, church gospels,
advertisements, ideas about science, theory and magic, books, the dynamics
between parent and child, between neighbor and neighbor, our inner
thoughts and fears, our actions, our use of language... On the whole, it
has tended to be a very monotonous humdrum affair, I may add. There
dominates the same old repetitive themes playing over and over like broken
records. Man against man, man against nature, business against business,
and nation against nation - all in a down and dirty opposing battle for
jobs, money, markets, capital, labor, land, raw materials, services,
status, privilege, and power. A constant search for ephemeral adrenalin
highs. All the while done with a wiser than thou, cynical mockery of high
ideals. Sadly, these are the only stories that many people hear for most
of their lives. Takes on the appearance of a fixed "reality", if they're
not lucky. Yuck. Automatons with no imagination. No emotional variety.
No subtlety. No spice.
As my mother would always say: you are what you eat. Values,
like "reality", are created through our interactions with them as we move
through time. They are of us, and are felt. Paraphrasing Maturana e
Varela, the stories you tell bring forth a world.
--Jackie Mullen J.Mullen@agora.stm.it
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>