Value

by Tony Learned

In 1968 a study conducted among college freshmen asked students to name their life objective. 79% of males and 87% of females said that their life objective was to develop a philosophy of life. In the year 2000, when asked what life objective students aspired to, only 43% of males and 42% of females said that developing a life philosophy was an objective. In fact, in a broad range of questions asked, everything from keeping up on political affairs to raising a family, the only topic that showed the highest increase as a life objective was to be well off financially. In 1968, 51% of males and 27% of females answered that financial well being was their primary life objective. In 2000, 76% of males and 71% of females stated that this was their life objective.

I would never condemn the pursuit of money. However, to place financial well being over creating a system of thought to govern one’s actions is unbelievable. This means that the society we live in is governed by a desire to impress first, create later. People would rather have money than be in control of their thoughts. This is a bleak commentary on our society. It seems that people don’t realize that the pursuit of money is a philosophical undertaking.

To desire prestige is to desire someone else’s stamp of approval on every action that one undertakes. This is selling your soul in the deepest metaphysical sense. If a person cannot allow their own actions to belong to themselves and value their own judgment as the ultimate stamp of approval, they are a slave to public opinion. If one gives up his or her own judgment then he or she must rely on what the collective decides for them. In an insightful comment about the masses Fidel Castro once said, “The most treasured possession of the masses is their ignorance, no matter how well educated they are. Masses are emotional; they think with their hearts, not with their brains. They don’t see or understand the whole picture; that’s why they are so easily manipulated.”

Any collective that values prestige as the ultimate goal is one that is setting itself up to be ruled by anyone. It is always individuals who show or tell the masses what should be regarded with reverence. If society accepts this on the very merit of wanting prestige so others will admire them, it is setting itself up for rule by a tyrant. People need to learn that the first thing to regard is their own sense of what is important to them in their lives. To do any less would be to accept a life of servitude to a collective that is a slave to an ideal.