Valuable Values Are Values Adhered To

          As this won't-be-missed year comes to an end, I thought it might help to explain (to myself) how philosophy reading might have provided an actual, recognizable, benefit.  I began by writing about values (mine) and ended with a better (bitter?) awareness of hypocrisy.  

          Before posting this, I needed a relevant image.  For grist, I cut/pasted the entire third paragraph of this essay into a search engine and randomly selected an image.  [I suspect the primary reason a page from the US Senate's 1988 record topped my search results is my paragraph contains several dots (⏺) and the page has an incongruous annotation about bullet points at the bottom.]  The entire page of the congressional record is filled with hypocrisy:  from the existence of an opening prayer (not much separation of church & state visible here) to its content (family values)—to its faux concern regarding the popularity of the USSR's then-president Gorbachev—to complimentary words regarding ex-US President Nixon (impeached/resigned 14 years earlier)—to statements about US's support of 'guerrillas' fighting against the then-USSR in Afghanistan. 

          I have "discovered" that reading philosophical writings can help put today's routine, normal, questions into a "deep-time framework" because most theo-philosophizers of yester-century and/or yester-millenia asked themselves questions which are eerily similar to those we ask ourselves today.

• Whathefucq is happening in this ugly world?
• How can I get along with all the terrible humans who share this planet with me?
• Where did we come from?
• Where does all of mankind go from here?
• I know what I am, but what are you?
  

          Many of the wise thinker's attempts at answers to these questions, however, have the same effect on me as yesterday's sunset—comfortable and calming as it enters my eyes and strikes my emotional chime-bones but quickly fading as I try (and fail) to describe it.

 

          They were one or more of the following:

• Complex thinkers who enjoyed learning from others.
• Orators getting paid to give speeches.
• Authors attempting to become famous.
• Diary-writers writing for their own benefit.
• Letter-writers hoping to mentor or teach their frequent correspondents.
• All.  very.  ignorant.  men.

          Ignorant in an unable-to-imagine-tomorrow's-question, kinda-way—not in an unable-to-excel-in-school-or-teach-the-class, kinda-way.  Almost all of these wise idiots were also, in some way hamstrung or constrained by their:

• geographical location
• relative, chronological, placement in history
• cultural/societal/religious hierarchies
• individual privileges and prejudices

          Although many of these men were aware of the limits of their knowledge, some thought (and wrote and then proclaimed aloud) that their writings were the best and final answer—without a hint of sarcasm or awareness of hubris.

 

          I am aware of my insignificance.  Doubly daunting when considering this documentation of my thoughts—relative to the magnitude of thoughts to be found on the internet—and then more-so when contemplating the exponential growth of the internet over the coming centuries/millenia (where these words will be digitally housed until who knows how long).  I could go on with 'triply so...' but to what end?

 

          There is, maybe, an infinite magnitude of questions which I will never be wise enough to think of.  Describing the unknown-unknown is paradoxically as simple as writing the two hypenated unk-unk words, and as complex as thinking about their definition. 

 

          I am at-this-moment attempting to get a mental grasp of all the ways that my being a:

• cis-male
• Caucasian 
  
• US citizen 
• alive in the "burgeoning information age" of the late-20th and early-21st centuries
• lower-middle class (relative to my contemporaries)
  
• politically progressive (whatever that means)
• intentionally possessing no obvious superstitions
• unintentionally possessing several situational privileges 

          And how this "mixture of me" has formed any number of unasked for prejudices in my brain's functions.  However, my awareness of some of my biased thought patterns makes me able to curtail many behaviors which otherwise might be considered "impulse-driven" or "innate" but which come into conflict with my chosen values.

 

          This logical description of how I identified a personal value explains why I adhere to it:

• I despise hypocrites who intentionally behave in a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do and/or a 'holier than thou' manner.
• Even observing recordings and/or listening to accounts of hypocrites words/actions can cause me to feel uncomfortable.
• If I find myself in a situation where I have to interact with people whom I despise, I feel various levels of anger and distrust toward them.
  
• I never want to mentally wrestle with feelings of self-anger or hatred.
• Because I never want to think of myself as a hypocrite, I am vigilant of behaviors which might result in a dichotomy or require justification of negative behavior to myself.
  

          This—Never Be A Hypocrite In My Own Eyes—is one of my (maybe my largest) core value.

 

          My ability to meet my own standards pleases me.  Makes me happy.  Or, to be more specific, I am so much more content with my life when I do not have any cognitive dissonance to contend with.  When I compare who I want to be with who I actually am and never need to, then, explain to myself why the jigsaw puzzle pieces do not smoothly and easily fit together . . . I feel virtuous in my own head.

not sated?  here's more:

on hypocrisy

on personal values

 

on becoming self aware