I disagree with this articles call to return to shared communal values, as they remind me too much of discrimination, bigotry, misogyny and homophobia being disguised as traditional community values. But I also remember honour, honesty, integrity and decency as being valued commodities that had significant currency in economic and political transactions. Remember when goodwill and reputation actually had financial worth? What happened to those perceptions? Why are liars applauded if they get away with their lies and shrugged off without repercussions if they get caught? What people need to hear is an account of how the suffering they experience in their personal lives, the breakdown of families, the loneliness and inability to trust other people, the sense of being surrounded by selfish and materialistic people, and the self-blaming they experience when their own relationships feel less fulfilling than they had hoped for are all a product of the way people have internalized the values of the capitalist marketplace. This suffering can only be overcome when the capitalist system itself is replaced by one based on love, caring, kindness and generosity, which no longer judges corporations, government policies, or social institutions as “efficient,” “productive” or “rational” solely by the extent to which they maximize money or power. Instead, liberals and progressives need to be advocating a New Bottom Line that focuses on how much any given institution or economic or social policy or practice tends to maximize our capacities to be loving and caring, kind and generous, environmentally responsible, and capable both of transcending a narrow utilitarian attitude toward other human beings, and of responding to the universe with wonder and radical amazement at the beauty of it all.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 10:13:07 +0000
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