Don’t Learn Value From Society

We face a crisis of false value. Ancient perspectives like that of Abraham offer a way out.

Last week, Editor-in-Chief Wolf Tivy published a new article on how to remain sovereign over your own values in a time many people are pursuing false ones.

It’s easy for someone to fall into a bad crowd when they’re young. This happens because children are excluded from adult society on the basis of their immaturity. But when given total freedom to build social structures amongst themselves, their inexperience leaves them vulnerable to status-chasing in activities that aren’t productive or healthy, like consuming party drugs that can serve as gateways to something worse.

However, children are not the only ones who can be tricked into following paths defined by false values. Many people muddle through life without a clear, self-derived conception of what is valuable, and instead chase after superficial markers of success that society provides for them:

In a healthy social fabric, people talk to their kin and neighbors, who mostly have similar interests and share direct experience of what works for them. They maintain traditions of wisdom inherited from past generations. This makes for a trustworthy supply chain to form a robust social perspective. They can easily reject false value and keep each other grounded. This is what our neurotic friend with the vulnerable son lacked. This is what we lacked growing up. Trustworthy social perspective formation is what is missing in our society, and it is this that explains our strange social problems. For a variety of historical reasons, our social fabric is substantially weaker than it should be.

But rebuilding social fabric is easier said than done. Another way of thinking about the problem is to completely reframe the question of what is valuable. Instead of mirroring the values of the society you live in right now, what would the biblical prophet Abraham have considered important, and what would he have thought to be superfluous?

I remember reading once, in response to America’s junk food problem, that you shouldn’t eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. It’s a good rule. As I read over ancient stories with my kids, it strikes me that most of us are chasing things that the biblical Abraham wouldn’t recognize as valuable. Maybe that would make a good rule too. Abraham is an archetypal example of rejecting false value and sticking to the hard substance of life. He would recognize our pursuit of prestige, financial wealth, and lifestyle aesthetics as false idols, not even worth the cheap materials they are fashioned from.

Learning value from Abraham instead of society, we realize that it is good land, many offspring, loyal friends, and adherence to a higher imperative that are most important in life—among other things. You can find the rest here.

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New York City Meetup

Palladium is hosting a meetup in New York City together with Contrary Capital on July 24th. Correspondent Ginevra Davis will be presenting a talk focused on her writing for Palladium followed by a Q&A session and reception. We’re looking forward to seeing you! You can register for the meetup here.

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Here’s what’s been on the front page lately:

Don’t Learn Value From Society by Wolf Tivy. We face a crisis of false value. Ancient perspectives like that of Abraham offer a way out.

The Triumph of the Good Samaritan by Ash Milton. Those trying to justify parasitic behaviors often invoke the language of charity and compassion. But true charity is about enforcing a superior form of life.

When Every Child Is a Choice by Ginevra Davis. As a normal life becomes more difficult for middle class parents to acquire, optimizing a child’s upbringing for educational and career success has become the norm—but at great expense. Is there another way?

The Answer Is Better Gangs by Seth Largo. As long as criminal enterprises offer the best gangs around, kids will continue to enter them. The question is where the better gangs could be.

Why I Live in San Francisco by Chris Robotham. San Francisco is upstream of America, and its social crises are spilling across the country. It is also the best place to find a path out.

That’s all for now.