What are standards, and who sets them? And why are they important? What is technological advancement without the advancement of the values infrastructure? Why do we mistake “more modern” with “better overall”? Is there perhaps a correlation? Maybe society cannot be more modern without advanced values.

One of the symbols of a functional society is a police force. A country without a police force can never be considered modern. Yet does a modern society with Tesla police vehicles signal an advanced value structure? I think it does. At what level is the façade of values connected to the roots of society? Perhaps a country that appears modern in technology and values on the outside can be outdated under the hood in both. Perhaps such a value system lacks depth and can be easily uprooted.

Deep values must be based on the goodness of society, which cannot be artificial. Or can artificial values be instilled in a society? I suppose through brainwashing and propaganda, but surely there are values genetically shared within a society, which a certain leadership can tap into and manipulate, but not replace. So, even after decades of artificially instilled values, society can revert to its underlying values if a leader knows how to tap into these. In effect, society can never truly be changed at its core unless its population is replaced or intermarried with people of other values. But would these other people take on the core values, or perhaps share both sets of values?

So, a society with core values of violence, hatred, and supremacy could intermingle with a society of peace, love, and modesty, thus creating offspring with conflicting values. Or will one set of values dominate the other? Or will it be a mixed bag? Clearly, if two value systems do not intermarry, there shall be a conflict at the core, masked by an artificial façade of values on the surface.

The only way forward, then, is for governments to maintain the façade and suppress any potential opposition that taps into core values, lest society revert to a lesser value system. To live a functional lie is better than to live a dysfunctional truth. Prosperity under artificial values is preferable to chaos under true core values. But how can an elected government hold such power, for surely it will be replaced periodically? Eventually, core values will resurface like a dam bursting from the pressure of heavy rains that can no longer be contained.

Thus, the defense of modern values relies on strong leadership with robust police and military power to subdue dissent—or, rather, with the power to do so, for if it actively exercises that power, it becomes a dictatorship. Democracy is a fortress that only succeeds if its leadership can defend it against core values. But in the end, which society truly has core values of democracy?

References

United Nations. (n.d.). Democracy. United Nations. Retrieved from un.org
ThoughtCo. (n.d.). The History of Modern Policing. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from thoughtco.com
World Economic Forum. (n.d.). The importance of societal values in technological progress. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from weforum.org
Baldwin, R. E. (2022). Intercultural Integration and Value Systems in Globalized Societies. Cambridge University Press.

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