Value system: …as avowed …as practiced

Title

Creator

Mitchell, Mabel M.

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Values (Ethics)

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

From The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Spring 1968.

Fulltext

VALUE SYSTEM: “Conventions are customs which are more practiced than preached; morals are customs which are more preached than practiced,” wrote Will Durant in The Mansions of Philosophy. Judging from the prolifera tion of problems — unem ployment, relief, high taxes, spending, graft, inflation, poverty, delinquency, neglect of children, broken homes, crime, anarchy, decline of morality, war — among a people generally considered to be citizens of a religious natidn, we might conclude that the value system in this country include principles that are more PREACHED than PRACTICED. Not alone in the twentieth century, however, has man kind shown a propensity for professing one thing and do ing another. Some explana tion seems in order for the wide disparity between what . . . as avowed ... as practiced mankind professes to value and what his practiced va lues produce. In order to make a com parison between our avowed personal value systems and our practiced value patterns, some evidence must at least be reviewed which would in dicate that they are not in harmony. This evidence is both general and specific. We subscribe to the adage that “Honesty is the best policy.” At the same time, we have created a national disgrace with cheating in classrooms, getting by with undercover deals in business, and causing insurance rates to sky-rocket because of our dishonest practices in report ing losses. We have compli cated and distorted that ba lance of trust by which men and civilizations have been pleased to advance them selves economically, socially, politically, and morally; we 12 Panorama have aggravated the task of the shopkeeper with our shoplifting; we have denied the private businessman his right to legitimate profit by taking, in addition to the wages he pays us, whatever we can conceal in our poc kets or our vehicles, or em bezzle through clever book keeping system. We have abdicated responsibility for indebtedness through the widespread subterfuge of bankruptcy. As if that were not enough, we have “nicti tated” (looked the other way) while bribery, graft, wholesale thievery, grand larceny even, have become accepted behavior by ap pointed and elected officials. We profess to value human life, but even the most ob vious instinct in mankind, self-preservation, becomes a mockery in practice. On the one hand, we spend millions of dollars, quantities of ener gy, and talent in pursuit of cures for everything from the common cold to cancer. On the other hand, with what would be comedy if it were not such tragic irony, we abuse, debase, even destroy ourselves physically. The re cords of highway slaughter are commonplace; they no longer shock us. The glut tony and excessive indul gences to which we subject our bodies are not so dra matic, but equally destruc tive. A most individual matter serves as a striking example of the ridiculous manner in which we irrationally prac tice what we do not rational ly preach. Almost no one, regardless, of his habits, will deny that cigarette smoking is a dirty, time-consuming, expensive, senseless habit. Within the last ten years, a mountain of evidence, uni versally disseminated, has at tested to its injurious, if not fatal, consequences to physi cal well-being. But cigarette smoking is on the increase, not decrease. The sinister forces that threaten and take our lives prematurely have their roots in our self-deception, pro fessing to value one thing while practicing an opposing value pattern. Probably no area of our lives, save one, is more fraught with meaning in this matter than is the political arena. Moral standards are preached; political expe July 1968 13 diency is practiced. The science or art of politics, that by which we govern our selves, ought to be the least suspect because of its tre mendous influence upon the lives and fortunes of so ma ny; yet from the local aider man or councilman to the men who aspire to the Pres idency, we need a Diogenes to search out “an honest man.” Political expediency has become a way of life; the effects are monumental and worldwide iq scope. The candidate presents himself as a man of intelli gence and honesty, assured that he has something of va lue to contribute to the ef fectiveness and orderliness of our democratic process. Then, so often, he begins the .devious journey which will preclude his contribu tion, telling himself that in order to be elected, he must sacrifice some of his honor, some of his principles, in the interest of the greater good, that of service. He really thinks he will reinstate those compromised principles of morals and ethics once in office. What a sorry plight our communities, cities, the nation, and the entire world are in through this kind of gap between professed va lues and practiced behaviors. We criticize those elements in our society whose de mands for higher wages, shorter working hours, more fringe benefits are wrecking such havoc on the value of the dollar. Under a slightly different guise, however, we add our own irresponsibility to the spiraling inflation that threatens our very existence as a free nation. We express regret, even indignation, over the plight of starving millions in far-off places and find a hundred excuses for not con tributing to the United Fund in our own communities. We pass laws and imediately begin the skillful eva sion, or downright violation, of them. We say that we honor virtue, but we do not practice it; we avow our love of freedom and for more than thirty years have bar tered it piecemeal for a false security. We extol the value of stable family life as the most basic foundation upon which to regenerate a free society, composed qf individuals committed to honor, decency, courage, and respect for fel 14 Panorama low-beings. All the while we participate in practices that are diametrically opposed to the preservation of family life. With childlike simpli city we expect to have it both ways. Now we are reaping a whirlwind of vio lence, bloodshed, and anar chy through our violation of the most primal law of life, that of love for our neighbor as for ourselves. In attempts to secure greater freedom, we enslave ourselves through personal habits or strictures imposed in the guise of security and the delusion that prosperity is synonymous with deflated dollars in wide circulation and civilization with the pro ducts of technology. We manifest our universal folly in selecting the commodity we desire but refuse to pay the price to obtain it. We are no more willing to har monize our ways and means than we are to harmonize our professed values with our practiced values. While it may be a dubious alibi to suggest that we are foolish rather than hypocritical, the fact remains that not all of the discrepancies between professed values and prac ticed value patterns can be accounted for by planned hypocrisy. The school of philosophy generally attributed to Freud views man essentially as an animal, as a pawn, as a mere victim of his surroundings. The Judaic-Christian Ethic, upon which our value system has been traditionally based, however, sees man as having not only the capacity but also the responsibility for directing himself along con structive, positive ways ra ther than merely following the path of least resistance. While we may give lip ser vice to this principle that man must bear responsibility for his behavior, we often deliberately and with effi ciency remove the individual from the consequences of his misbehavior. Hoodlums roam the streets wantonly destroying property and human life, but they are not considered responsible. Society, whatever that animal is, has failed them. Gangs of idle malingerers vandalize schools, churches, and pri vate homes. Who can blame them? The community does not provide wholesome re creation. If students do not July 1968 15 learn in school, the cause is not their indolence, inatten tion, or disinterest, but the failure of the teacher to mo tivate them. We have car ried this mythical scapegoat business to such proportions that the effect is disastrous to the general well-being of the national character. Man is an agent unto him self; he cannot escape the inevitable consequences of his personal value systems in profession and practice. Yet, we have made guilty of our own behavior society, our parents, the government, teachers, preachers, friends, as well as the “divine thrust ing on” and “planetary in fluence.” Meanwhile, the net result, does not go away; it sits and stares at us, grow ing more and more formida ble. While it is easy to blame society, or something else, it is difficult to admit “I was wrong” or “I was in error.” Man is not born with a value system. He must learn it. Plato, in Laws, said that the little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, dis gust, and hatred at those things which really are plea sant, likable, disgusting, and hateful. In the Republic, the wellnurtured youth is one . . . who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of na ture, and with a just dis tate would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourish ed by it, so that he be comes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to Reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her. Aristotle had something similar to say on the subject. He thought that unless a child had been trained in “ordinate affections or just sentiments,” it would be use less to appeal to his ethical sense when he became an adult because he would have no basis for such an ap proach. Though too obvious 16 Panorama to require saying, the home, the church, and the school, in that order perhaps, have abdicated some responsibility in inculcating moral and ethical principles, underlying a value system, early in the child’s development. — By Mabel M. Mitchell in The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulle tin, Spring 1968. COSTLY PRINTING ERRORS HELP-WANTED ad in the St. Louis Post-Dis patch: “Drivers, school bus. Add to income or supplement retirement tension.” FROM a Kiwanis Club bulletin: “Sorry to hear about Edith feeling poorly. We hope you’re feel ing your usual porky self soon, Edith.” FROM a restaurant’s business card: “Indian, Pakistani, Chinese foods . . . Die in an authentic Eastern atmosphere.’' FROM an article on a drum and bugle corps in the Marion, Ohio, Star: “Mr. Seaton, who retires from the corps this year, will join the staff as bulg ing instructor.” FROM the Charlottesville, Va., Progress: “Ap pointments may be made beforehand by calling the hospital and asking for the blood bank. This will avoid needles waiting.” NOTICE in the Belton, S.C., News: “I want to say thank you to all the friends who have continued to remember me with prayers, cards, letters and gifts. I am still under the doctor’s care. Please con tinue to pray for me.” FROM the Memphis Press-Scimitar: “A total of $40 million in tax revenge was collected by the state.” July 1968 17

pages

12-17

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