Ep. 12: The 6 Categories of Value
What are you willing to throw your life away on? With Andrew Reed and The Liberation. It's a serious question, one worth pondering. Am I living the life I want, an intelligent life, or something else? How can I have a better experience of life?
Speaker 1:These are some of the questions explored in this series of messages without the brag and the advertisement, getting beyond even human institutions and society into the wilderness, nature, the reality of how life actually operates on this planet. These messages range from intimate recordings from the awakened forest to concerts, national conferences, and broadcasts on wide array of philosophical topics.
Speaker 2:Here we are this fine morning again in the waking forest. Life is happening. Last night there was a huge storm on the mountain. Today it's relatively peaceful. Thus, the oscillation of life continues.
Speaker 2:And I'd like to talk about what I feel is an important topic and that's the topic of value. It's a topic that I've given considerable attention to because value really drives our lives to a great extent because we're constantly making decisions, purchase decisions, directions or courses for our lives, what we're going to throw our life away on. So value is involved because what is the human organism really doing? We're functioning again like the amoeba or like all life. We're going towards the perceived gain or value or positive.
Speaker 2:We're going away from those things that don't affirm life, things that could kill us or harm us or cause us sadness or whatever. Thus, value is part of that equation. Now, with that said, value is a projection. It's something that we assign to objects, or relationships, or it can be ideas, or whatever. So they're projected onto things and thus this means that they are self created to a large extent.
Speaker 2:And let's just add the other variable here is that no two individuals project the same value on things, just as though two people can't have the same views. I mean, you can be part of a group or going to a church or other gathering of supposed people with the same beliefs, but really no two individuals have the same perception. Or is it even possible that they experience the world in the same way because they're not living in that particular position? So, value therefore is very much an individual proposition. And again, this to me, you know, adds flavor and adds some spice to the process of life.
Speaker 2:One example I'd like to use right out of the gate is the crown jewels. Here's this thing in the British Empire that is worth untold amounts of money. Right? But yet, a child might be given the crown jewels and they'll play with it for about five minutes and then find a cardboard box that's been discarded more interesting to play with. Thus, the concept of value is represented in the extremes of that example.
Speaker 2:So, in my contemplations, I've basically come up with six categories of value. And the utility behind these categorizations is that the more boxes that are checked as you're contemplating your purchase decisions, the directions for your life, what you're going to throw your life away on, the better the decision. Now with that said, if you have something that just checks one box, that's pretty good. But most of the time the more boxes that are checked where your decision satisfies these things, the better you're going to feel about it and probably the better decision you're going to make. And so let me just list them out and then I'll elaborate on them a little bit.
Speaker 2:The first is survival value. Second is utility value. Third is economic value. Fourth is entertainment value. Fifth is aesthetic value.
Speaker 2:And the sixth point is happiness value. And as I go through these things, obviously you're assigning value along the way and the lines will blur. You'll see that entertainment value, happiness value, well, they kind of go together. Well, of course, I mean, language itself is a little bit squishy. Life itself is a bit messy, is it not?
Speaker 2:And we muddle our way through often. But the point is there is kind of a main thrust behind each of these categories and by having some type of definition or lines between them, again, it helps us and that's the power of language. So survival value. Here we are, beings that are protoplasm, meaning that we have to seek our energy from sources outside of ourselves. Obviously we would assign a lot of value to what?
Speaker 2:Food or those things that preserve our organism. We need to maintain a relatively stable body temperature, so therefore the external climate and all that makes a difference. We have to be able to fight off threats whether they're from society or nature. All those things come into this really the survival value category. Again, we're protoplasm and we have to get with this.
Speaker 2:We're not like a plant that can just sit in the sun and use as chlorophyll just to enjoy the day and be in the breeze. So survival value, food, shelter, clothing, means of defense. Okay, all of those are obvious. And again, it's very similar to the amoeba, the single celled organism who is going towards food or glimmers of warmth, anything that's life affirming, going away from pain, things that would threaten life, because that's just the way that life works and that provides great movement, almost in a, again, electromagnetic type of way. That is movement.
Speaker 2:So most of us get this value point. The next is utility value. This is things that make life easier. This is a dishwasher. This is a knife.
Speaker 2:This is a computer. All of those things make life easier, you know, rather than spending ten hours doing the laundry, I mean we can have it done practically, probably in an hour depending on the cycle that you select, and that's utility value, and that's worth something to us. Third point is economic value. This is normally money value and all of us get that, that we have to shell out a certain number of guacamoles or whatever for whatever we want and we'll pay more for things we value highly and less for things that we don't. So we get that, especially since we live in what?
Speaker 2:A transactional world. Fourth point is entertainment value. And we pay for entertainment. And I perceive that entertainment is actually the fundamental energy of the universe because we're always running away from boredom. We want to go to the new, the exciting, we want to improve our lives and that seems natural.
Speaker 2:We go even to get scared to the movies and put ourselves sometimes in pickles. Maybe that wasn't such a good choice but there's entertainment wrapped up in that. The fifth category of value is aesthetic value. This has to do with art and beauty. So when we go to the art institute in Chicago, like me and my daughter do often, yes, we're looking at that Van Gogh, we're marveling.
Speaker 2:And yes, it is a form of entertainment, but it's it's a different form of entertainment than, for example, a circus ride or being chased by a bear or playing a game or something like that. And the sixth point is what happiness value, which really probably bleeds into a lot of the other categories, but I'll just say this happiness, a sense of deep inner satisfaction, contentment, yeah, that's worth something to us and most of us would pay for that type of thing. And so, with these categories, again, the utility value is that we can take a look at our purchase decisions and put it against these categories and maybe feel better about what we do. Let's take gold for an extreme example. And this is a very personal one for me because basically I probably watched too many infomercials and was convinced that the economy would collapse, so what?
Speaker 2:I bought gold or precious metals. One of the worst decisions I've ever did. But I took a, I mean, a fair amount of money and I put it into gold and silver and all that. And then I sat on it for about eight years as it really didn't do much. In fact, it went down and then, of course, I wanted to get my money back.
Speaker 2:But soon as it got to a point where I could get my money back, maybe make a little bit, I sold it and proceeded to buy some properties, you know, some some houses. But let's take a look at gold against this grid and then compare it to the houses. Well, does it have survival value? Well, I mean, I suppose you could take a big chunk of this and heave it at somebody in a defensive type mode, but it really doesn't have much survival value. You can't eat it.
Speaker 2:Utility value. Well, I guess you could use it for a doorstop or something like that but it's heavy and really impractical to move around. It does have economic value and that's really the reason that that people purchase it. But it's a great illustration of just the projection of value because inherently, I mean gold, yeah, they used to use it for fillings, they don't even do that anymore. Silver has a little bit more value, especially if they're going to start using more solar panels and things like that or different components of, you know, fighter jets and stuff.
Speaker 2:So there's some value there just from a use value or utility value. But economics is really the main thing behind precious metals. Entertainment value, to me, that's even questionable. Again, in my projection of value. I'm sure that you might have some fine coins or maybe you could have it melted into a statue or something like that.
Speaker 2:But there's not a lot of entertainment value really. Aesthetic value, the same thing. Maybe you have the statue or coin that symbolizes art and beauty or a Japanese pot that has the crack that's filled in with the gold. I mean, that that is beautiful. And then happiness.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You may get some happiness from that gold of just knowing that you have it. But I found when I went to sell it, they couldn't even handle it in most places. And when I ended up selling it, what did I buy? I bought a few houses and properties.
Speaker 2:And let's compare that to the list. Well, does it have survival value? Yes. I mean you could go in these things, warm up, get out of the weather, all that. Do they have utility value?
Speaker 2:Sure. I mean you can go into your dwelling, you can do work, you can do all kinds of different things, watch TV, rest, create value there. And it surely has utility value because you don't have to erect a structure every time you get sleepy. So there's a convenience factor. Certainly it has economic value.
Speaker 2:We see the price of housing rising all the time. And normally for a lot of folks that is one of the main or most valuable assets they have. And so, yeah, the house checks that box, certainly. For entertainment value, absolutely. Your house can be a great source of entertainment even when you're fixing it up like I did when I was coming out of some really rough financial times, and that's happened a few times in my life.
Speaker 2:But that process of making that property beautiful, enjoying it and then everything that you can do within that structure, yeah, there's entertainment value, aesthetic value. As you work on it and are entertained in that process, can step back and admire your work. That's a great feeling which leads us to the last point of happiness and contentment. Yeah, it's great to own your property, and see what you've done with your two hands or with your ingenuity or whatever. So, again, gold really only hits the economic value, at least in my mind, whereas a house checks almost all of them.
Speaker 2:So therefore that's a better decision. A knife is another great example. It has survival value, I mean you can procure food with it, It has utility value in that you can cut limbs and pieces of twine. Has economic value certainly. Depends on different blades, different handles, all that.
Speaker 2:It has entertainment values. You can throw a knife. You can enjoy the process of using the knife, even sharpening the knife. It has an aesthetic value or at least a lot of them do. Some of them not so much, but if it has a nice handle, nice blade, nice shape, yeah, you look at it and you admire it.
Speaker 2:Then the happiness value comes from, again, the achievement of using it, the happiness of having it, having gained the skills to use it. So again, a knife is another illustration of something that really checks a lot of the boxes. But then you can take mom's meatloaf, something that I cherish. Well, survival value, you could say, well, it is food, but you know, that's kinda not the main thing. There's certainly some economic value utility.
Speaker 2:No. The big thing is entertainment there. This is great. I love it and it makes me happy. Aesthetics, I don't know if we're taking pictures.
Speaker 2:Some people take pictures of their food and admire it later. So that one gets a little weak or the other the can of beans, the generic can of beans that you get from Sam's Club or whatever. You could say, yes. It's got some survival value. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You certainly can eat it. But utility value, yes. It is convenient. There's a small economic value. It's not like you're gonna pay a lot of money for a can of beans.
Speaker 2:Entertainment value, I don't know, maybe you could dry it out and play don't spill the beans or whatever aesthetics. I haven't seen too much bean art around. Happiness value, again, that's another questionable thing, whether that can of beans really delights you. So our list of categories serves us well in making us feel that we're going in the right direction, we're making good choices. And let me just add a few things in closing about value.
Speaker 2:There's scarcity value. If there's not much of something, for example, they always say, Oh, they're not making any more land, which is a true statement, There's scarcity and what does that do? That runs up the price of things. There's the value of knowledge, know how. If you put against that grid, we know that even the form that we get that knowledge changes the value.
Speaker 2:For example, a digital version, in my mind, has less value because it's less reliable. Yes, it is convenient in modern society, but when the power's off like it is in the mountain or it happens and has the possibility of happening of course in life, a book, especially if it has good illustrations and photos, is of higher value because you can always get at it. But again, is projection and in a lot of ways it's tied to wealth. And to me, this profound idea of what wealth is, is really fully experiencing life. I mean, when you take a walk, you're not just trying to go some place, you're enjoying the process of the walk.
Speaker 2:When you're eating your food you're actually tasting your food rather than being in a production or productivity mindset just to get through. And so, the value of ideas, which of course I think is among the highest values and things to contemplate, is an important thing. Why? Because it shapes our experience of life. Because value is a projection, the ideas that we hold in our minds, to a large extent, shape, again, the experience of life.
Speaker 2:Whether we deem something good, bad, mediocre, this projection I mean, if you choose to have an attitude that looks at all life as positive, as affirming, that even when bad things happen to us we ask ourselves, What is life trying to teach me here? That makes that hardship or that hard time much more tolerable. And perhaps even a more enjoyable situation like when you get sick and you go, Wow, I get to watch TV today. Yeah, I don't feel great. Or maybe I've been pressing myself too much so it basically breaks the normal routines of life and gives us really time or space to contemplate life.
Speaker 2:Again, taking a negative and looking at it with a different idea or perspective. So the value of ideas to me is probably the most paramount thing to keep in mind. So that's it. Value. What it is, it's a projection, it's something we assign to things, relationships, ideas, and it's something worth exploring.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you need anything further, just go to mvi.life.