The Value of Considering Our Values
From: The Values Compass, Dr. Mandeep Rai
“Governments, constitutions, colonizers, civil wars, and political movements may come and go. Borders shift, countries are wiped off the map one generation, and restored the next, and then altered some more. But values remain, the irreducible core of the national culture and identity. American entrepreneurship stems from a promise that has for centuries attracted immigrants to explore new geographical, scientific, and technological frontiers. Pakistani courage is the product of how peoples have had to fight for their place in the world, ever since its founding in the bloodstained aftermath of Partition. Hungarian competitiveness arises from a history that has seen the country invaded and conquered on an almost unremitting basis since the 13th century. French protest is a tradition that connects the gilets jaunes of the 2018 with the sans-culottes of 1789. Every nation’s upward spiral, inconsistent and confusing though it may be, has evolved around - and in turn helped to shape- its defining value. Through sharing the stories of values from around the world, illustrating their power and the rich variety that exists, I hope to inspire you to start discovering and making the most of yours.
Of course, to elect a single value for 101 countries is not to suggest that the tapestry of people, communities, and cultures that make up a nation state is homogeneous. Nor is it to claim any objective truth about what value should represent a country: the ones chosen here are the fruit of many conversations and passionate debates, and I expect you will disagree with some of the conclusions. The purpose is to illustrate the extent to which a value can inform the life and culture of a nation, and to understand how the same is true of our own lives. However diverse and heterogeneous a nation, and however complex and multifaceted a life, it is both possible and valuable to distill down the single factors that motivate and inspire it. The discipline of trying to understand these core drivers is as important as the conclusion itself.” (Introduction, p.7)
