How many people feel their skin start to crawl, and feel a weight start to press down upon them, when they hear the word "values" these days? Is that what the Founding Fathers intended? That people would feel sick and apprehensive when they considered the values that defined their country?
I don't think so.
America was a country founded on the promise of a dream of freedom.
So here is a value for you ... and one that will work for you when other people observe it ...
Mind
Your own
Fucking
Business
That's right. Mind your own fucking business. Don't worry about other people. Don't worry about what they're doing. And, if we ever got to point where everybody followed that advice, you wouldn't get that scared, sick, clammy feeling when you heard some asshole mention the word "values" ... Because you would know that it wasn't being used to bend you to someone else's will and make you live your life in some way you did not want to.
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I think an even scarier word is Morality. Morals, or whatever the person who is speaking deems them to be are never quite as scary as when you are being judged by someone else's. The problem with both Values and Morals, are that they are subjective, and in more cases than not we are being judged by standards of morality and value that are not our own, by people who truly believe they have the "Right" to do so. This is part of the reason we get into wars in foreign countries, why our own people starve in the streets, and too many other things to list. America has a double standard, we look at everyone else and judge them by our idealism, and yet we do this knowing that we do not stand up to the scrutiny which we place on others. That is just what happens on a national level. As smaller microcosms of folks, we end up doing the same thing, we simply personalize the values and moral idealism more when the group we judge is smaller. isn't necessarily right that we do this, it is just what happens. I have no idea where the self-righteous, belief that we should judge others comes from, I do think we learn it in our youth, and carry it with us as adults. Not everyone of course, just those who refuse to fight their training. This is long winded again, sorry Mike, I meant to just "comment" here. haha.. ~Jules
ReplyDeleteJules, you are certainly not long-winded! And, as usual, you make some good points. In case you did not notice, by the way, you are now entitled to post to this site in your own right and not just in response to existing posts.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I did notice, and am flattered. I tend to try to follow the old "it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it" idiom. There are times when my naiveté is embarrassing. I will however, make an effort when the mood strikes me, to be as intelligible as possible.
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