VALUES AND MORALITY
My moral compass is a dial of values important to me. Five of the most important values are courage, freedom, truth, beauty and love. I could list more, but those five circulate regularly through my life, giving shape and identity to my work, relationships, recreation, and spirituality. They may be called my core values. However, sometimes I think, feel, and act contrary to the five values I listed above.
Why is that so? Life happens to us while we go about our work, relationships, and the many interesting things that catch our attention. A conversation with a neighbor, a TV show, an article in the paper, our partner's reminder of some household duty we forgot, anger at some disturbing political event, the much-treasured telephone calls from children, the mischievous scurrying about of our dogs and cats—all these and more pull us away from our deep center. So many interests and needs grab our attention and we flounder. We juggle our many selves and we lose contact with our moral compass.
But is this not a dilemma each of us faces as we deal with the practical concerns of our everyday life? Or to put it more directly, how often do we give thought to our values? And what do I mean by "value"? What is a "value?" And what do I mean when I place them in the role of directing our moral compass?
Take just a moment here and consider what a value is. The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language defines value this way:
And what about morality? Take note of this definition of morality:
On the surface, most simply put, our moral compass is what we learned in childhood. Be nice to other people. Say "thank you" when you are given something. Do not cross the street in front of oncoming traffic and hurt yourself or cause an accident. Share your crayons with other kids who do not have any. Respect your teachers. Stand when you say the Pledge of Allegiance. At church, bow your head when others pray. Do not be resentful when others are elected as class officers but remember you may be chosen the next time and, if not, support other kids who are honest and hard-working. Remember, you may have may sweethearts before you choose a life-partner. With messages like these our core values were formed and our morality set in motion.
But, as I said earlier, sometimes we flounder and lose touch with our moral center. The truth is, as we observe in our society today, something happened to our moral center. Our language has become coarse and often vulgar. Support of the poor and needy has been impacted by the national social services grant cuts. Severe foreign oil rollbacks and steep inflation impact groceries and transportation as well as operating costs. In addition, we cope with a war that has not been officially supported in Congress nor explained as to cause and expectations for termination.
How do we explain what has happened to America that has rattled the world, broken alliances, threatened the stability of our democracy, taken away attention to the natural disasters that threaten planet Earth, and lost sight of our democratic ideals? I offer three explanations.
The first explanation is that the everyday needs of life summon our attention. Population growth has increased with a preference for living alone. We are drifting apart. The total number of single-person households has increased from 6.9 million in 1960 to over 38 million in 2022. Consider the strain this growth alone places on our infrastructure and services. In other words, our population growth and expectations for the "good life" command attention. We create new highways, we destroy habitats to build new houses, we expect community services, we need medical care, and we face an aging population. With so many demands for our attention, who has time to think of a moral compass?
Second, Carl Jung called our attention to consider what happened to Germay between 1935 and 1945. As he said in his essay, "Wotan," it was not so much the economics or politics that fractured the nation, as it was the experience of "Wotan," the archetype of power, war and domination. In his timeless essay, Jung describes what happens to a nation that falls under the spell of an archetype. In another writing, I will say more about the nature of an archetype and its power to seize the minds of individuals. I trust it will suffice to describe an archetype as having impact on humans just as instincts have an impact on animals. The archetypal experience of a "feeling tone" shapes the direction taken because of its power to influence our perceptions, thinking, and feeling. As a result, our moods and mental activities are led in directions of which we are not conscious and within which our values are lost. Wotan led to an authoritarian rule of Hitler who embodied the dictator archetype and activated the energy that engulfed the German people. Such archetypal powers override our morality.
My third explanation as to what happened to our society that has distorted our moral compass must be understood psychologically. Simply put, we are experiencing the would-be leadership of an individual whose personality may be described as narcissistic sociopathy. You may look up the term. Google, with the aid of AI, presents this summary:
They are characterized by extreme grandiosity, deep manipulation, a
complete lack of empathy, and a disregard for social norms, often
gaining pleasure from harming others. These individuals lack a moral
compass and often use deception for personal pleasure or gain.
Here with these considerations of (1) sociopathic narcissism, (2) archetypal possession, and (3) a growing population driven by advertising media that shows no concern for morality, I have described how we lose touch with our values and morality. But they are not lost. I will return to the role of values and morality in the night-time drama of our dreams.
My moral compass is a dial of values important to me. Five of the most important values are courage, freedom, truth, beauty and love. I could list more, but those five circulate regularly through my life, giving shape and identity to my work, relationships, recreation, and spirituality. They may be called my core values. However, sometimes I think, feel, and act contrary to the five values I listed above.
Why is that so? Life happens to us while we go about our work, relationships, and the many interesting things that catch our attention. A conversation with a neighbor, a TV show, an article in the paper, our partner's reminder of some household duty we forgot, anger at some disturbing political event, the much-treasured telephone calls from children, the mischievous scurrying about of our dogs and cats—all these and more pull us away from our deep center. So many interests and needs grab our attention and we flounder. We juggle our many selves and we lose contact with our moral compass.
But is this not a dilemma each of us faces as we deal with the practical concerns of our everyday life? Or to put it more directly, how often do we give thought to our values? And what do I mean by "value"? What is a "value?" And what do I mean when I place them in the role of directing our moral compass?
Take just a moment here and consider what a value is. The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language defines value this way:
- the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
- the principles or standards of behavior; and judgement of what is important in life.
And what about morality? Take note of this definition of morality:
- a particular system of values and principles of conduct.
On the surface, most simply put, our moral compass is what we learned in childhood. Be nice to other people. Say "thank you" when you are given something. Do not cross the street in front of oncoming traffic and hurt yourself or cause an accident. Share your crayons with other kids who do not have any. Respect your teachers. Stand when you say the Pledge of Allegiance. At church, bow your head when others pray. Do not be resentful when others are elected as class officers but remember you may be chosen the next time and, if not, support other kids who are honest and hard-working. Remember, you may have may sweethearts before you choose a life-partner. With messages like these our core values were formed and our morality set in motion.
But, as I said earlier, sometimes we flounder and lose touch with our moral center. The truth is, as we observe in our society today, something happened to our moral center. Our language has become coarse and often vulgar. Support of the poor and needy has been impacted by the national social services grant cuts. Severe foreign oil rollbacks and steep inflation impact groceries and transportation as well as operating costs. In addition, we cope with a war that has not been officially supported in Congress nor explained as to cause and expectations for termination.
How do we explain what has happened to America that has rattled the world, broken alliances, threatened the stability of our democracy, taken away attention to the natural disasters that threaten planet Earth, and lost sight of our democratic ideals? I offer three explanations.
The first explanation is that the everyday needs of life summon our attention. Population growth has increased with a preference for living alone. We are drifting apart. The total number of single-person households has increased from 6.9 million in 1960 to over 38 million in 2022. Consider the strain this growth alone places on our infrastructure and services. In other words, our population growth and expectations for the "good life" command attention. We create new highways, we destroy habitats to build new houses, we expect community services, we need medical care, and we face an aging population. With so many demands for our attention, who has time to think of a moral compass?
Second, Carl Jung called our attention to consider what happened to Germay between 1935 and 1945. As he said in his essay, "Wotan," it was not so much the economics or politics that fractured the nation, as it was the experience of "Wotan," the archetype of power, war and domination. In his timeless essay, Jung describes what happens to a nation that falls under the spell of an archetype. In another writing, I will say more about the nature of an archetype and its power to seize the minds of individuals. I trust it will suffice to describe an archetype as having impact on humans just as instincts have an impact on animals. The archetypal experience of a "feeling tone" shapes the direction taken because of its power to influence our perceptions, thinking, and feeling. As a result, our moods and mental activities are led in directions of which we are not conscious and within which our values are lost. Wotan led to an authoritarian rule of Hitler who embodied the dictator archetype and activated the energy that engulfed the German people. Such archetypal powers override our morality.
My third explanation as to what happened to our society that has distorted our moral compass must be understood psychologically. Simply put, we are experiencing the would-be leadership of an individual whose personality may be described as narcissistic sociopathy. You may look up the term. Google, with the aid of AI, presents this summary:
They are characterized by extreme grandiosity, deep manipulation, a
complete lack of empathy, and a disregard for social norms, often
gaining pleasure from harming others. These individuals lack a moral
compass and often use deception for personal pleasure or gain.
Here with these considerations of (1) sociopathic narcissism, (2) archetypal possession, and (3) a growing population driven by advertising media that shows no concern for morality, I have described how we lose touch with our values and morality. But they are not lost. I will return to the role of values and morality in the night-time drama of our dreams.
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