10. An
identity, values and virtues perspective
Next, I will look at the two species – us and them
– from a perspective of the identity perceived by, and the virtues and values
which are important to, the members of each.
Identity
Most people are taught, in varying degrees, to see
themselves as having some political identity, such as a particular nationality,
or perhaps a particular cultural heritage. For someone from England, this poses
a particular problem: am I British or English? Since I myself feel contempt for
politics and the “British” state, when I need to give a nationality, I always
say “English.” And I know I am by no means alone in this choice. (I, and others
like me, can get away with this today, given that England has no political
existence.)
Another way to identify yourself is by what you do, such as
your profession or job. Carl Jung’s “You are what you do” is, perhaps, closer
to the truth than Jung himself would have realized. (Iain M. Banks’ version,
“You is what you done,” is closer still). As members of an economic species,
there is a lot to be said for each of us identifying ourselves by one or more
of our chosen means of contributing to humanity. And I know many people who do
this.
But for me personally, the question “what identity do I
feel?” is a very simple one to answer. The answer is: “I am a human being.”
First and foremost, of course, I am an individual. But I am also a member of
the human species, striving to keep to the natural law of humanity.
The characteristics, which I feel identify me most closely,
are my humanity and my honesty. Here, I use “honesty” both in the conventional
senses, and in the sense of one who seeks to keep to the natural law of
humanity. And for those of us, who strive to judge those around us by their
behaviour, not by who they are, it is particularly easy to feel ourselves
simply to be human beings. Neither we nor our fellows need to be anything more!
In contrast, our enemies expect us to identify ourselves by
some political label. Perhaps by a nationality, or by our support of a
particular political ideology. Or maybe by a race, a gender, a religion, an
ethnicity or a social class. Indeed, they seek to encourage “identity
politics,” in which people feel themselves to be divided from everyone else
along fault lines such as these. Such divisions, of course, make it harder for
ordinary people to band together to defend themselves against the oppressions,
to which the political élites
seek to subject them.
As to the identity which our enemies as individuals feel, it
seems quite hard to characterize. In their behaviours, they often show
arrogance, as if those with state power feel they are better people than those
they oppress, just by virtue of their positions of power. There are also
visible tendencies towards corruption, recklessness, hypocrisy and rejection of
accountability, perhaps inspired by the idea that “the king can do no wrong.”
All in all, it is hard to understand how our enemies, if
they have consciences, can possibly live with themselves. Maybe they do not
have consciences at all?
Values and virtues
Historically, the ideas of virtues and values have been
closely connected. But in recent times, a distinction has grown up between the
two. Virtues are moral standards which are considered desirable. Values are
practical goals or ideals, which are considered desirable. So, virtues are
ethical ideas, while values are closer to political ones.
Human virtues
We human beings, the economic species, tend to think
ethically; that is, about what is right and wrong. Thus, we think primarily in
terms of virtues, rather than values. But whatever each of us sees as a virtue,
we strive to live up to, and so to make into one of our values.
Our virtues vary in detail from individual to individual.
Despite this, many of us think along the same lines; we value different
variations on a similar theme. Some among us value highly the four cardinal
virtues put forward by Aristotle, and later adopted by Christianity: prudence,
justice, temperance and courage. Others add one or more of the other virtues in
his list: self-discipline, moderation, modesty, humility, generosity,
friendliness, truthfulness, honesty.
Myself, I look at ethics more in terms of respect for
others’ rights than of virtuous behaviour. Despite this, I have given my own
list of ten virtues: honesty, respect for rights and freedoms, independence,
truthfulness, responsibility, integrity, mutual tolerance, mutual good faith,
conscience (i.e. knowing right from wrong), and Franz Oppenheimer’s “economic
means” of co-operating with others.
Our enemies’ “virtues”
The political species today, so it seems, think more in
terms of values than of virtues. They think in political terms, of desired
goals and “the art of the possible,” rather than in terms of ethics, what is
right and virtuous, or wrong and despicable.
I may be being unduly cynical here, but I can see very
little that our enemies show in terms of positive virtues. I can think of just
two things they seem to think of as virtues: selflessness or altruism, and
political correctness. Both of which I see as anti-virtues; negatives, not
positives.
Beyond these, they like to “virtue signal” their conformance
to some norm they think of as desirable. For example, refusing to deal with
fossil fuel companies, or making mantras out of glib phrases like “all-electric”
or “zero emissions.” Virtue signalling is a behaviour, which I personally find
abhorrent. Those that virtue signal, I like to say, are showing their lack of any
real virtues.
Human values
As with our virtues, our values as human beings vary in
detail from individual to individual. But we tend to pick out as our strongest
values those ideas, whose genesis and growth came during the best periods of
our history.
Thus, we tend to value highly the part of our nature, which
leads us to take control of our surroundings, to make use of them for our
benefit, and to leave our mark on them. We also value highly the rationality
and powers of reasoning, which we learned back in ancient Greek times. Along
with their later derivative, honest science. And we value the climate of
discovery, and the sense of spiritual renewal, which were hallmarks of the
Renaissance.
We hold dear to us the values which we learned at the
Enlightenment, a list of which I gave earlier. Including: Mutual tolerance. Individual
liberty, freedom of thought and action. Natural rights, natural equality of all
human beings. Government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Government with the consent of, and for the benefit of, the governed – all
the governed, real wrongdoers excepted. The rule of law. An ideal of justice which
upholds rights and freedoms for all those who respect others' rights and
freedoms. A desire for human progress, and a rational optimism for the future.
We also cherish the values which we inherited from the
Industrial Revolution. Such as: The free market and free trade. Honest
business. Being creative, solving problems, and trading with each other for
mutual benefit. Moreover, we set a high value on human rights and freedoms for
all those who earn them.
Ultimately, our highest values are humanity and
individuality. We are human beings, and we are individuals. We know that others
of our species are individuals, too. And we judge each of them by their
behaviours, not by who they are. Thus, we value all those, who behave as human
beings, as the individuals they are. And we value humanity, our species, as a
whole.
Our enemies’ values
Our enemies’ professed values tend to sound good at first,
but rapidly become inconsistent or incoherent when subjected to analysis.
“Sustainability” (ability to endure into the future) seems for
our enemies to be a prime value today. Although it is ironic that, as shown by
the 2022 famine in Sri Lanka, policies made in the name of sustainability have
proved not to be sustainable. This is starting to show in other areas too. For
example, “nett zero” policies are now beginning to be seen as what they are,
destructive interventions whose effect will be to make energy and travel
unaffordable for most.
They seem to value re-cycling, to the point where it becomes
almost a religion. “Safety” and “security” are also value buzz-words they like
to use frequently. Even when they come at a high cost in human rights, freedoms
or dignity; and when their reckless actions contradict their rhetoric of
“safety.”
They also claim to value “health.” But this seems to be
little more than a ruse to scapegoat people who don’t match criteria they
perceive as ideal, or to “justify” bad health policies like COVID lockdowns.
They do not put much value, if any, on humanity, or the
human species as a whole. And they are, very often, anti-individual. Instead,
they value collectivism, and political ideologies derived from it. They seem to
see politics and “unity” as good things, too. For them, the collective is
everything, and the individual is nothing.
They pay lip service to “rights,” and yet they show no
respect at all for our basic human rights such as property, privacy, the
presumption of innocence, and freedom of speech.
They set a high store on things they call “diversity,”
“equality” and “inclusion.” And yet, their kind of “diversity” leads to an
all-pervading sameness, like pots of black and white paint muddled into a
uniform grey. Their kind of “equality” requires the power of the state, with
its extreme ethical inequality, in order to implement it. And their kind
of “inclusion” does not bring people together, but divides them from each
other.
They seem to think that “the planet,” wildlife, “climate” and
“protection for habitats and ecosystems” are more deserving of concern than
human beings. Yet they show no concern whatsoever for the environment of peace,
freedom and justice, which we human beings need in order to flourish. Further,
they value something they call “nature,” but they do not value our human
nature.
They value “low impact” or “low footprint” on the world
outside. Which they like to enforce through arbitrary, collective, ever-tightening
limits. Economically, they value “zero growth” or even “de-growth.” These
dubious “values” are ultra-conservative, opposed to change of any kind to the status
quo, except when it pushes us human beings down harder under the boot of
oppression. Yet they also want to “transform societies” into something that is
quite the antithesis of any civilization worth the name. And they want to “nudge”
and “transform” us human beings into something quite foreign to humanity.
They do not seem to value honesty at all. Indeed,
deviousness, and the invention of baseless narratives and accusations that goes
with it, is becoming more and more obvious among them. You can see, for
example, how pressures against farmers are being applied in different places
using different ruses. In Sri Lanka, it was a forced shift to “organic”
farming. In the Netherlands, it has been forced by the EU, using the excuse of
“biodiversity.” In the UK, it is being done using unjust, confiscatory taxation.
It is not hard to conclude that, despite different excuses, the agenda in each
case is the same. The agenda is to make it difficult for the farmers to do
their jobs. And thus, to threaten food security for everyone.
Moreover, our enemies seek to enforce their values on us,
even against our own values and wills. And they use threats of violence, or
even actual violence, to do so. Tolerance of others, when those others’ desires
go against their agendas, has no place in their value system.
And so, we and they are at war.
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