Jun 05
It’s interesting to look at the truths we cling to.
These things look so solid, almost timeless, but are they? Lao Tzu warns us that our precious truths are totally subjective, they change with time and place. For example, what is considered beauty in one culture or era is not necessarily so in another. Many politicians try to play to the idea that ideals and values are always the same, changeless, “traditional values”.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. So called traditional values aren’t always the best recourse, the best way is to adapt and change. A refusal to accept this puts you in the position of King Canute, trying to stop the tide, look what happened to him.
June 10th, 2006 at 10:32 am
I was reading in a book about this sort of thing just this morning actually, and I was surprised, even shocked, to see how fixed so many of my own ideals and beliefs are. The unexamined value works as “the one and only unchangeable truth” for us, which does indeed run against the grain of the dynamic quality of life. So, being willing to be flexible and aware is certainly something we’d all do well to cultivate.
Have I added anything there, or just repeated what you’ve said? Heh, it can often seem that way with commenting I find. Perhaps I would have been better just to say, “Richard, I enjoy reading your words, and this post was some good food for thought in a menu section that had recently caught my eye.”
June 11th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
To be honest, I think you’ve put it much better than I did!
So called “Timeless Truths” are never really timeless. Your point about the unexamined value reminds me of a Socrates quote:
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Perhaps we could say, “The unexamined value is not worth holding”?
June 12th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Heheh, we could say that indeed! What good is a value if it doesn’t stand up to examination? That thought certainly leads well into your next post.
And perhaps we can make a quantum physics/business joke of it as well…
“The unexamined holding has no value.”
Hmm. Depends how loosely you define the word ‘joke’ I suppose.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
What ‘traditionalists’ often forget is that traditions change, as any student of history could tell you. Any society that becomes so mired in its’ traditions that it is unable to change become stagnant and dies.