The story of the Nazarene birth of a child inspires many of us to take stock, to look back and reflect on what we value as we approach the season of goodwill and contemplate our future.
Our values reflect what is important to us in our lives – they guide our behaviour as individuals, as citizens of our country and of the world.
A December madness makes it easy to avoid the Advent challenge of examining ourselves and our nation about who we are and what we might become as a people. It is easy to be swept up in the tsunami of consumerism, in the almost inescapable waves of “getting and spending, laying waste our powers, seeing little in nature that is ours” lines from poet William Wordsworth in 1802.
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Shared values build cohesion in families, communities and nations. Ireland is no longer a homogeneous society where values are universally shared.
Nevertheless, we are inextricably connected to each other and to our environment, and the need to examine and reassert our core values is more urgent than ever.
The challenge is to seek a vision of a shared Ireland where the voices of all are given space to be heard and where we engage with each other for the common good by having sufficient goals in common to make the best life possible for everyone.
Despite a decline in the moral authority of the Catholic Church, we retain many of the Gospel values of justice, equality, generosity, peace and love.
We see new ways of practising them. Compassion, generosity, work for justice, equality and peace continue to be at the heart of our national conscience.
The work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul and many other voluntary organisations, caring for the vulnerable in our society, is testament to this adherence to valuing all persons.
The increase in migrants is presenting new opportunities to broaden our horizons and embrace the sheer diversity of others in language and culture. Conflicting responses to these new arrivals require serious engagement at neighbourhood and national levels.
In the past, Ireland (like many other countries) had a fixed view of what constituted a family unit.
Those who lived in any relationship outside one based on heterosexual marriage were looked down upon.
Such thinking led to labelling children as “illegitimate”, to incarcerating pregnant women and to removing their babies with or without their consent. Church and society only valued relationships based on heterosexual marriage.
Today, we have arrived at a new understanding of family. Different family configurations based on the core value of loving, caring, committed relationships, conventional or otherwise, are valued equally.
It is not that we have replaced conventional families but we have gained new insights so we are able to identify the core meaning and value of family.
Every era presents new challenges, national and global. We have only lately acknowledged that we have treated Planet Earth carelessly and exploited its resources as if they were sustainable without cost. The realisation that we hold the Earth and all its richness in trust for future generations is the first step in redirecting how we value our common home.
Extreme climate events can no longer be ignored. While we demand government action, all of us can generate ecological shifts in valuing our environment.
Improved sources of natural energy and increasing forestation to reduce our carbon footprint will not come without a cost, personally and collectively.
Do we care enough to make the sort of changes needed to hand over the planet in good condition to the next generation?
These decisions are difficult. It takes time to remove barriers to shifting human consciousness.
The first step, as in the social changes in Ireland in the last two decades, began with awareness. Voters realised the impact that no divorce, no contraception, no respect for the communities, had on other citizens, by listening to their experiences.
They could understand how legislation was inhibiting the lives of others unjustly, and they were prepared to shift their values. How we resolve conflicts between values is one of our greatest challenges. For example, how do we reconcile the value of clean air with the value of a windmill-free landscape?
The coarseness of public discourse has made the possibility of shared values even more difficult to reach and to articulate.
The first step in reaching a common understanding of values is awareness that values differ.
Then we can try to understand why others hold different values and reflect on the reasons why we hold our own values.
Developing a common value system requires being open to new knowledge and insights and to the possibility that there may be alternative, but equally valid, points of view.
This process requires a willingness to hear the views of others and to try to understand them.
Reflection on our core values needs a framework to ensure we become a nation in tune itself.
Such a framework was demonstrated by the Citizens’ Assembly, which was a triumph of process. Representative citizens with open-minded interest explored different perspectives through listening, discussing, questioning created space for calm reflection leading to decision-making.
In order to prevent the development of a divided society, we need to promote serious conversations on reconciling conflicting values and avoid inflammatory language before we descend to the bleak impoverishment of public discourse in other states.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Gina Menzies: 'Reflection on our core values as a nation requires an openness to ensure we stay in tune with each other'
Gina Menzies: 'Reflection on our core values as a nation requires an openness to ensure we stay in tune with each other'
The story of the Nazarene birth of a child inspires many of us to take stock, to look back and reflect on what we value as we approach the season of goodwill and contemplate our future.
Our values reflect what is important to us in our lives – they guide our behaviour as individuals, as citizens of our country and of the world.
A December madness makes it easy to avoid the Advent challenge of examining ourselves and our nation about who we are and what we might become as a people. It is easy to be swept up in the tsunami of consumerism, in the almost inescapable waves of “getting and spending, laying waste our powers, seeing little in nature that is ours” lines from poet William Wordsworth in 1802.
Please log in or register with Independent.ie for free access to this article.
Log In
New to Independent.ie? Create an account
Shared values build cohesion in families, communities and nations. Ireland is no longer a homogeneous society where values are universally shared.
Nevertheless, we are inextricably connected to each other and to our environment, and the need to examine and reassert our core values is more urgent than ever.
The challenge is to seek a vision of a shared Ireland where the voices of all are given space to be heard and where we engage with each other for the common good by having sufficient goals in common to make the best life possible for everyone.
Despite a decline in the moral authority of the Catholic Church, we retain many of the Gospel values of justice, equality, generosity, peace and love.
We see new ways of practising them. Compassion, generosity, work for justice, equality and peace continue to be at the heart of our national conscience.
The work of the Society of St Vincent de Paul and many other voluntary organisations, caring for the vulnerable in our society, is testament to this adherence to valuing all persons.
The increase in migrants is presenting new opportunities to broaden our horizons and embrace the sheer diversity of others in language and culture. Conflicting responses to these new arrivals require serious engagement at neighbourhood and national levels.
In the past, Ireland (like many other countries) had a fixed view of what constituted a family unit.
Those who lived in any relationship outside one based on heterosexual marriage were looked down upon.
Such thinking led to labelling children as “illegitimate”, to incarcerating pregnant women and to removing their babies with or without their consent. Church and society only valued relationships based on heterosexual marriage.
Today, we have arrived at a new understanding of family. Different family configurations based on the core value of loving, caring, committed relationships, conventional or otherwise, are valued equally.
It is not that we have replaced conventional families but we have gained new insights so we are able to identify the core meaning and value of family.
Every era presents new challenges, national and global. We have only lately acknowledged that we have treated Planet Earth carelessly and exploited its resources as if they were sustainable without cost. The realisation that we hold the Earth and all its richness in trust for future generations is the first step in redirecting how we value our common home.
Extreme climate events can no longer be ignored. While we demand government action, all of us can generate ecological shifts in valuing our environment.
Improved sources of natural energy and increasing forestation to reduce our carbon footprint will not come without a cost, personally and collectively.
Do we care enough to make the sort of changes needed to hand over the planet in good condition to the next generation?
These decisions are difficult. It takes time to remove barriers to shifting human consciousness.
The first step, as in the social changes in Ireland in the last two decades, began with awareness. Voters realised the impact that no divorce, no contraception, no respect for the communities, had on other citizens, by listening to their experiences.
They could understand how legislation was inhibiting the lives of others unjustly, and they were prepared to shift their values. How we resolve conflicts between values is one of our greatest challenges. For example, how do we reconcile the value of clean air with the value of a windmill-free landscape?
The coarseness of public discourse has made the possibility of shared values even more difficult to reach and to articulate.
The first step in reaching a common understanding of values is awareness that values differ.
Then we can try to understand why others hold different values and reflect on the reasons why we hold our own values.
Developing a common value system requires being open to new knowledge and insights and to the possibility that there may be alternative, but equally valid, points of view.
This process requires a willingness to hear the views of others and to try to understand them.
Reflection on our core values needs a framework to ensure we become a nation in tune itself.
Such a framework was demonstrated by the Citizens’ Assembly, which was a triumph of process. Representative citizens with open-minded interest explored different perspectives through listening, discussing, questioning created space for calm reflection leading to decision-making.
In order to prevent the development of a divided society, we need to promote serious conversations on reconciling conflicting values and avoid inflammatory language before we descend to the bleak impoverishment of public discourse in other states.
Source: Read Full Article