Values to live by to build a better world

Today’s world, it seems, has become a world of continuing and deepening crises. Wisdom, must surely compel us to ask: Why? Is it lack of money or resources? Or Lack of technology and IT? Or Lack of people holding PhDs and MBAs? Or lack of goals set by this organisation or that? No. What we lack is moral and spiritual imagination and compass. Our crises can only be addressed, reversed and resolved, and our goals can only be achieved, if we change direction, adopt new values and become concerned with life’s bigger picture. If we want to realise anything good in life, including any goals we may set ourselves, we must begin, first and foremost, by focusing on some fundamental and enduring questions of human meaning and value. Questions such as: 1. What does it mean to be human? 2. What does it mean to live a life of meaning and purpose? 3. What does it mean to understand and appreciate the natural world? 4. What does it mean to forge a more just society for the common good? By their very nature, these questions involve thought and discussion around spirituality, ethics, morals and values. One thing is clear: the main problem we face today is not the absence of technical or economic solutions, but rather the presence of moral and spiritual crises. This requires us to build broad global consensus on a vision that places values such as love, generosity and caring for the common good into socio-political and economic practice, suggesting possibilities for healing and transforming our world. To construct the foundations which are needed to build “The Future We Want” needs a path which is not exclusively economic and monetary. In seeking to answer life’s bigger and pertinent questions, and to understand the world better, we need to discover the world not just as it is, but also how it ought to be. Indeed, the deepest and most difficult questions with which we wrestle are problems of value — right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, just and unjust, worthy or unworthy, dignified or abhorrent, love and hatred, cooperation and competition, selflessness and selfishness, progress and poverty, profit and loss. Human beings have explored these many questions of value through religion, philosophy, the creation of art and literature, and more. Indeed, questions of value have inaugurated many disciplines within the humanities and continue to drive them today. Questions and conversations about values and valuing are fundamental to what it means to be human, but rarely become the subject of explicit public reflection. The future is full of risk and perils for our planet and all peoples. If we are to survive we must surely build cultures of peace, justice, kindness, and trust, and we must walk together to face the future. The journey, for sure, will be much more secure and fruitful if we begin to walk the walk together for the common good.