Ideology vs. Values
I have been reading The Audacity of Hope recently. Early on, Obama makes an important distinction between ideology and values. Certainly no one would doubt that values have a depth that ideology fails to plumb; my first thought is that an ideology is built on top of the bedrock of an individual's values.
Obama uses an illustration that he says occurred in the Illinois senate; a Republican colleague argued vehemently against against a school-provided breakfast program for Elementary school children. The Senator used as a reason not to create this program the argument that providing free breakfast for children would rob them of their self sufficiency! Obama countered that he has never known elementary school children who were self sufficient to begin with, and his side actually lost--in his words, Illinois school children were spared the debilitating effects of cereal and milk.
His point is that values can inform whatever situation or issue a person comes to, while an ideology is rigid and tends to blind people to the big picture in favor of minutiae. No one claiming to be a public servant would deny poor children breakfast, especially since studies show how difficult it is to concentrate when a student is hungry, yet in the name of fiscal conservation--an ideology--the value of feeding the poor is lost.
Pretty interesting, if you ask me. What do you think? In you own life, what motivates you more, ideals you adhere to, or values you carry inside? Wouldn't we all be better off if we identified our ideals and our values in play when we are thinking through various issues and situations?
Obama uses an illustration that he says occurred in the Illinois senate; a Republican colleague argued vehemently against against a school-provided breakfast program for Elementary school children. The Senator used as a reason not to create this program the argument that providing free breakfast for children would rob them of their self sufficiency! Obama countered that he has never known elementary school children who were self sufficient to begin with, and his side actually lost--in his words, Illinois school children were spared the debilitating effects of cereal and milk.
His point is that values can inform whatever situation or issue a person comes to, while an ideology is rigid and tends to blind people to the big picture in favor of minutiae. No one claiming to be a public servant would deny poor children breakfast, especially since studies show how difficult it is to concentrate when a student is hungry, yet in the name of fiscal conservation--an ideology--the value of feeding the poor is lost.
Pretty interesting, if you ask me. What do you think? In you own life, what motivates you more, ideals you adhere to, or values you carry inside? Wouldn't we all be better off if we identified our ideals and our values in play when we are thinking through various issues and situations?
