I cannot connect the dots to doing God's work or the meaning of the construct of internal or external value systems.
I hesitate to answer this because I know that discussing religion tends to bring out your temper. But I will give it a go with the understanding that I am not going to engage in numerous exchanges about it.
The "God" construct means you base your value system on an something that is external to you. Primitive societies start off with a "Witch Doctor" structure. The "Witch Doctor," a concept that grows into "Priest," tells you what you should do based on his concept of what "God" wants you to do. "God," in this concept, can be anything from a statue in a hut to a voice from a mountain top to the priest's or individual's interpretation of a religious book.
The Witch Doctor ties in with the tribal chief and gets him to enforce his edicts. In exchange, the tribal chief gets the witch doctor's endorsement as "God's instrument." In Britain, the Queen is the head of the church. In Japan [please don't use "jap," it's derogatory. I have three grandchildren who are half Japanese] The Emperor is the "son of God."
When "God" is taken out of the picture by a secular society, they put the head of state or the state itself in as the external value you must follow. National Socialism was really defined in Germany as "whatever Hitler wants." Same with Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.
This is a way to install and enforce an external value system on a group. Some variation of the above has run societies from the beginning of civilization up until the present.
People are trained from birth to accept external authority. When you tell a child "don't do that!" and he questions you, you tell him "because I say so!" If he refuses this answer, you can say, "because it is against Gods will!", or "because Dear Leader says so!"
These value systems have great potential to be used for good or evil because they are enforced externally of the individual using them. He doesn't have to think for himself, all he has to do is what he is told.
We all have an internal value system, but we don't normally articulate it. It is based on the reality of "life or death." When faced with this choice, we will chose life. Therefore, any code of values will choose life as the ultimate value. As Ayn Rand puts it in Atlas Shrugged,
"It is only the concept of 'life' that makes the concept of 'value' possible.
So when you rely on your internal standard of value, it will harder to manipulate you into committing great evil.
I think this gives the "bare bones" of the internal value system. I don't want to do it in detail. Gets too boring for most. |
