INSTRUMENTAL AND BEYOND

When we distinguish values so that we recognize there are instrumental values (means values) and there are end values, we introduce two very different ways of living. The first way is what most people on Planet Earth know and do—they live for instrumental values. This creates a certain way of thinking. When your values are instrumental, you value objects and experiences as important strictly for what you get from them. Results! That’s what you want and that’s what you focus on—getting results. Getting whatever it is that you are valuing.

That’s good! For things that are not valuable in and of themselves, but for what they lead to, this is good. Instrumental values answers the question, “What is this X good for?” “Why should I care about X, what will it do for me?” You have to know the answers to these questions in order to know how to cope with everyday life. If getting to work is important, then whatever means you use to get there, you can value. Bus, car, train, subway, walking, riding a bike, hitching a ride, etc. These are instrumental values.

Does that mean you cannot appreciate and value the bus, a car, the train, etc. and value it for itself? No, of course you could. And it never hurts to value an instrumental value and see its inherent value. But if that’s all you do, then your perspective is short and shallow. When you save money for an emergency, it is an instrumental value and you can appreciate the money for itself as representing a safety net. But to think of money as an end value almost always creates an addiction, a compulsion, and a neurotic need. Not good.

To only live in a world of instrumental values means that everything and everybody is just a means to an end. If that’s all you have in terms of values, then everything and every person has a price. And worse, no person is inherently valuable. Talk about a de-humanizing way to live! Thinking that way means that every person you meet, you evaluate, “What can this person do for me?” “What benefit can I derive from this person?” And if the answer is “none,” they you will see and feel that that person has no value—no value to you. This is how we begin to devalue someone, de-personalize someone, and de-humanize someone.

Instrumental values are good for what they are good for—getting you to a valued end. But what end? Ah, now we are moving into the highest values, the being values. These are the values that are not instrumental, but an end value. And that means the experience you have with them is being.

What is this being state or experience? One way to understand it is to contrast it to two other states—doing and having. “Being” refers to being human, being a human being—a person who is more than, and different from, what you can do, say, think, feel, relate, etc. You were a human being at birth before any of your cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacities were developed.

Another understanding of being arises when you realize that it is out of being that you become. This means that “being” is dynamic, fluid, and always in process. You are always becoming. In fact, every day our being grows an develops (or degenerates).

Now the being-values that Maslow and others identified can be used both instrumentally and for being. Truth is valuable as a means to understand what’s real and is an inherent value. Truth sets you free, and truth in itself is beautiful and satisfying to the mind and soul. Justice is similarly both an instrumental value and an end-value. So also with all of the being-values: meaning, knowledge, excellence, making a difference, contribution, altruism, equality, etc.

In a being-value, you stop striving. You are not thinking about gaining, winning, defeating, conquering, developing, climbing a mountain, and so on. Instead you are thinking about the wonder and mystery and beauty of an experience or person. You rest in that value, just appreciating, just admiring, adoring, etc.

What is the purpose of the end-values? That question is mostly a silIy question. If it is an end- value, then that’s the end. The value is inherent. It is not for anything more than itself. Of course, the American (and Western) way of thinking can hardly process that. We are so quick to ask, “To what end?” “For what purpose?” In being-ness we stop asking that. We stop asking, “What should I do?” That’s because the answer is, “Just be.”