Values Aren't Chains; They Are Wings
Some may use 'values' against us. But we can use them to fly.
Values, as a concept, is among the most misunderstood and misapplied ideas in our cultural vocabulary. Values are invoked as euphemisms, dog whistles, and appeals to Truth. They're the candy coating on a social order that ranks some more deserving than others. They're the doublespeak that gives moral weight to exclusion, objectification, and exploitation.
'Traditional values' have long been a weapon used by conservatives against progress. But what exactly is a 'traditional value?' The language we use for values hasn't changed much over time. Today, we still talk about values like freedom, justice, and equality—just as people have for hundreds (even thousands) of years. What's changed is how those values are acted upon.
Who is included in freedom, justice, and equality has changed. What we define as freedom, justice, and equality has evolved. How we build freedom, justice, and equality into our communities has expanded. But the values stay the same.
Many would have us believe that upholding these values necessarily leads to certain formations of identity and family. That particular economic and governmental systems naturally flow from these values. 'Tradition' dictates that we conform to a narrow set of categories if we align with those values, that there is a historically constant difference between right and wrong, good and bad.
'Family values' don't represent a value for family as much as they constrain what kind of families are good. The 'pro-life' value doesn't represent a value for life as much as it constrains which lives are worth standing up for and which are forfeit. 'Christian values' aren't so much based on the teachings of Christ as they are the teachings of legalistic, hegemonic institutions.
Even in work and business, we learn that 'freedom' means 'passive income' or 'working from home.' We learn that 'passion' means 'loving your work.' We learn that 'creativity' means pursuing the next marketing idea or innovative product. Every rich and complex human value is reduced to an Answer that benefits the status quo.
Those who would claim that values present us with Answers aren't talking about values; they're talking about dogma—the all-too-human distortion of faith for political gain. In his exploration of the nature of religion at the dawn of the 21st century, John D. Caputo argues that rigid conceptions of God's ways sound more like our own ways rather than God's:
...our own very unmysterious and human all too human ethnocentrism and egocentrism, our own nationalism and narcissism, our own sexism, racism, and self-love writ large, in short, a gross human weakness that is being passed off as a Great Divine Attribute.
Dogma—in religion, in politics, in business—uses our values against us by creating a scaffolding of prescriptions and absolutes. And even though it's presented as inalienable Truth, dogma never has the solution for today's puzzles. Values, in all their messy glory, help us figure it out for ourselves.
Values are ideas that guide us. They keep us tied to our deepest, most cherished beliefs at the same time they inspire us to think beyond what we know. Values help us forge indelible connections to people who live or work or organize themselves in ways very different from our own. Values are the foundation on which we build our choices, not a name we slap onto a gilded tower of rules and expectations meant to keep us in our place.
Values inspire the imagination and provide the roots from which wisdom can grow. "True thinking," writes philosopher Frédéric Gros:
…is the movement of emergence, the correction of first impressions ... wisdom means judging each act as it comes. It means advancing without abstract rules or principles, taking as foothold only the dialogue within ... Wisdom is not a superior science, it is actively thinking, getting to the root of the question, rather than stirring the ashes of rote knowledge, repeated dogmas, or acquired certainties.
Values aren't pre-built frameworks but prompts for curiosity and critical thinking.
Values aren't answers; they are questions.
Values aren't chains; they are wings.
Listen to an audio version of this piece on the What Works podcast.