CLICK to listen to the audio version of this Daily Paradox

We each have values implanted in us when young. Some will be positive, thoughtful infusions, mainly from parents and teachers; others will be casual, accidental, based on observation, environment and example, both good and bad. Werner Herzog’s documentary “Into the abyss” is a study of why three lives were gratuitously lost in order to gain possession of a car. The implications of this film reach beyond the appalling amorality of the case; it has lessons for us all.

The obvious importance of handing on good values is widely accepted if not quite so widely practiced. What those good values are now differs from one societal group to another. Based on old religious tenets they are often selfish. ‘Save your soul’ is unequivocally about me, not about others. The orders to avoid doing certain anti-social actions are clearly sensible but the human race evolved more successfully by doing things rather than by avoiding them.

Religious rules do include behaviour towards others, of course. To that extent they are unquestionably beneficial. Their emphasis on rewards in an unproven after-life and from a faith-based Deity places the purpose of and reasons for good behaviour beyond our intellect thus absolving us from rational analysis and flexibility. Religion is based on dogma, behaviour on necessity.

The values most widely implanted in the young are those of achievement, wealth, security. Each is, when handled properly, of importance. Interestingly, the majority of Mentees who come to me for advice claim to have knowledge of and wisdom about money that turns out to be false on examination. I am constantly surprised by the lack of financial understanding even by those in the money industry. Its failure to reassure borders on the unnerving.

The lack of repentance of the characters in ‘Into the abyss’ is more than the result of a failure to implant values of the rights of others. It is a failure to convey the true sacredness of another person. Whether that sacredness lies in something God given we do not know, though some believe. For the purpose of our earthly society it must rest on our intrinsic value not on a value possibly bestowed from elsewhere.

A purpose for life, rather than a value by which to run it, is happiness. Everyone seeks it in his or her own way. The values handed to the young all imply that exercising those values will lead to happiness not just after we are dead but here on earth. Worldly happiness is both desirable and attainable for many people. All the evidence points to its dependence on largely abandoning our own wishes and seeking to help others fulfill their lives.

Paradoxically that reverberates to our benefit as much as to theirs. But then life is, indeed, a Daily Paradox.

A new religion started today should simply be called “Others”.