FUSsa-talk Mailing List: Fwd: Embodying values

[Robert Tapp (tappx001]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Robert Tapp <tappx001 [at] umn.edu>
> Date: August 6, 2010 10:58:15 AM CDT
> To: Humanist Institute Discussion Group Discussion Group <hidisc [at] 
> humanistinstitute.org>
> 
> 
> Kim Bobo has written an important story on ways that Unitarian Universalists 
> have embodied their values on human rights as those values embrace also 
> immigrant right.--individually, congregationally, and denominationally. 
> Humanist groups, with their much more limited resources, would do well to 
> emulate these patterns.
> 
>       
> http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/3102/a_primer_on_activism_from_unitarian_universalists
> 
> Values/morals/ethics are all tricky terms. Most groupings in human history 
> have described their enemy groups as being <without> these things. (<Nazis, 
> Stalinists, atheists......have no ethics>).
> 
> It would, of course, be more accurate to say <The other (bad) group has 
> DIFFERENT values/morals/ethics from ours>.  Then civilized discussions and 
> comparisons could emerge. Long ago I tried calling values things that humans 
> <choose and cherish>.
> 
> The thing social sciences were discovering was that values are central to 
> human functioning. During World War II, when we had to deal with fascists who 
> held very different values, many researchers had fled from Germany to the US. 
> (Much of John Dewey's pioneering work was finally coming into its own in 
> academic circles). Psychologists such as Milton Rokeach  took the next step 
> by studying the ways individuals ranked their own high values. Among his 18 
> high/good values were Freedom and Order. Surprise! Conservatives and liberals 
> differed greatly on which to put high on their ranking. Next steps (and 
> Rokeach worked on some of these before his untimely death) was to study ways 
> that values could be changed.
> 
> Paul Tillich, theologian who failed to break the Nazi-Christian link, 
> emigrated, and failed to significantly liberalize US Protestants, in 1954 
> produced a lastingly-important book entitled Love, power, and justice; 
> ontological analyses and ethical applications. His thesis was that these were 
> ALL desirable values, but their demands often conflicted, and 
> moral/ethical/valuing persons therefore had to re-rank and choose which value 
> was MOST important in each given situation.
> 
> Immigration reform is a very visible issue right now, and humanists should be 
> applying their long experience with value issues to this. How do we alter the 
> present mix of corporate desire for docile and un-unionized labor, popular 
> desire for cheap goods, and the values of dignity and human rights. And then 
> throw in the <rule of law>.
> 
> Bob
> 
>