Overvalued traits and undervalued ones:
Single examples of human genius are over-valued without appreciating the normal sequence in a human lifespan where a person is born, matures, raises kids, gets old and then dies. Geniuses are supposed to be brilliant and figure out how to solve flashy problems but this puts a lot of pressure on them to be superhuman. A normal human lifespan isn’t appreciated or valued or supported with a system that has stable employment or without wishing by and large for an infinite lifespan instead of a finite one. Raising children doesn’t seem to be valued at all.
The perfect product is valued but it has to have superlative qualities and be mass marketed whereas products made independently by hand are undervalued even though humans have been making things for their own use for thousands of years. Mass production undervalues individual know-how and creativity. And remember that humans are part of mass production in most cases by running machines or overseeing processes. The human element is still playing a role.
Human agency is undervalued in the neoliberal workplace where people are seen as similar, even interchangeable, and expected to do whatever they are told to do without reasoning about what that is or what its consequences might be. This is in contrast to old mantras in medicine like “do no harm,” or Peter Drucker’s assertion that people have values and that they should carefully match their personal values to what they are doing at work; if the value sets don’t match, he thought, they should leave. J.S. Mill thought that with small men, no great things are possible.
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The power of organizations and what they can accomplish is overvalued for instance in government bureaucracies, while the power of individuals living life and making independent decisions is undervalued even though this is a freer arena where more options remain open all the time, giving society more flexibility. One of the problems with bureaucracy is its resistance to necessary change. Influencers have become tools of organizations without being held to standards of truth-telling. Truth is undervalued when peddling influence.
Secresy and subterfuge is overvalued and above board dealing is undervalued. Take for example voting in America. The ability for groups to cheat in elections has been more highly valued than the fidelity of our voting systems. That’s really a shame.
Censorship has been overvalued and freedom of speech, or freedom of expression, has been undervalued, especially recently since the Covid caper. Censorship is all about aggression to tell people what to do, what to think and to limit their choices while eliminating accountability for the wrong choices being made by organizations.
War has been overvalued under neoliberalism and peace has been undervalued. If state and corporate actors profit from warmaking, those people collecting money from war want more war all the time. This is tragic and a disaster for everyone.
Reality is undervalued under neoliberalism and fantasy has been elevated to new heights. But reality matters. Green energy including solar and wind is undermined by real limits of copper and steel, for example. Pretending that any idea can work if enough people believe in it is foolish. The real world always influences what is possible.
Partnerships between the most powerful players in government and industry are overvalued and individual lives are undervalued. Government picking economic winners and losers is overvalued while damage to individuals by externalizing costs to them is underappreciated. The risk of fascism leading to mass death is underappreciated. Yesterday, I read that inflation is likely to kill more people than the covid caper. What do you think about that? Do you see an end to inflation any time soon?
Hiring managers don’t want to hire older workers. Yet it is hard to get a return on investment for expensive training when the average time a person can work in a job is so short now. On balance, youth is undervalued and old age is undervalued. Older people aren’t valued for their knowledge or wisdom. It takes a full lifespan to see how wrong even careful choices can go. It takes a lifetime to alter what we believed when we were young when we see more of life and learn about life. But youth is also undervalued in terms of being socially nurtured towards successful outcomes. Financialization has undermined the success of young and old alike. Valuing humans has gone awry in the neoliberal era. Young people are often told to expect robots to take on their role in the workplace. Young people in school are being told that AI is smarter than people, even though that isn’t true. We have algorithms but not intelligent computers. Human intelligence matters as much as ever now, but it is undervalued in the neoliberal age.
We all live in the neoliberal era right now. What do you see as undervalued and overvalued? How can we improve our society? How can we invest in processes and value human life in a way that can help society to grow and improve?
Political Catsup with Economy Fries: Liberalism, Pragmatism, Opportunism 