Re: how people are acquired by values
Phil Graham (pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au)
Mon, 04 Jan 1999 00:06:07 +1100
Something from a work in progress:
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I was brought up worshipping symbols. We all are. Flags and crosses,
hammers and sickles, dollars and cents, are all, or have been, the objects
of human worship. They are at the heart of what we call a personal value
system. Symbol worship, death, and identity are closely related in human
societies. The symbols that people publicly worship most usually promise
deliverance from evil or hardship or whatever else is said to lead to an
untimely or uncomfortable death (as if there were any other kind for the
dying), or an unhappy life. As such, symbol worship is an act of fear.
Undoubtedly, it is also an act of consumption: people swallow the story
attached to the sacred symbols knowing full well that the object of their
worship is an abstraction like "security", "everlasting life", "hope",
"love", "prestige", "equality for all", "international competitiveness",
and so on.
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I think values (which are themselves descriptions) are part of our
self-descriptions and thus our identity. Inevitable and important, often
beautiful, just as often ugly.
Prefab value _systems_ ie systematised values, are most usually ugly
beasties. Like personal value systems which are dynamic, they are
necessarily mediated by language and often consume (appropriate) large
parts of the population. Nevertheless, or so it seems to me, they form an
immense part of identities.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
New Years wish to follow.
Phil
Phil Graham
p.graham who-is-at qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html