malicieusss
Mouthbreathing ruins faces.
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2022
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Did you think you were exempt?—that you had special access to a vacuum, free from the forces of tastes, distastes, values and fears? Because… in every other case there is a boundary, a condition, some point beyond which valuation shifts radically. But I guess you’re the exception.
Nothing has intrinsic, objective value. That includes you and me. Value is an action, a verb, and exists only as a product of subjectivity. Only through forgetfulness does it become petrified as a noun with hard, immutable qualities. There are no such qualities; all value is conditional. All value is valuation.
The non-human version of value—that cosmological, unconditional and immutable version—might as well have no meaning at all. We cannot access it or interrogate it. It exists only as a metaphysical claim, as a FAITH: “every thing must have its inherent value, its necessary role.” Why? Why should this be true? Why is it objectively better that we exist rather than not exist? Why should it be objectively better that this planet, or any planet exists rather than doesn’t exist?
It isn’t better objectively. It’s better subjectively. It’s better because it’s better to us, to someone, to something that cares and has an experience. Value only exists if there is an acting subject doing the valuing. As soon as we accept this premise, it follows that the only value is subjective value. So why not own this?
I’ll tell you what is for sure a losing game: to wait, expect, even demand to be valued and accepted by right of your mysterious ‘intrinsic value’—simply because you exist. This leads to entitlement, resentment, inaction, and ultimately impotence and emptiness.
Instead, go out and value. Put hands to metal and mud. Let the alleys and arenas of the word instruct you about what you want, about who you can be while you’re alive. Create an ugly, useless thing; then nurture it into something undeniable. Strategize to traverse where it’s very difficult to traverse; access in a way few or none have accessed. Start over again and again. Become someone you value. You don’t ‘have’ value. You value, and are valued.
Nothing has intrinsic, objective value. That includes you and me. Value is an action, a verb, and exists only as a product of subjectivity. Only through forgetfulness does it become petrified as a noun with hard, immutable qualities. There are no such qualities; all value is conditional. All value is valuation.
The non-human version of value—that cosmological, unconditional and immutable version—might as well have no meaning at all. We cannot access it or interrogate it. It exists only as a metaphysical claim, as a FAITH: “every thing must have its inherent value, its necessary role.” Why? Why should this be true? Why is it objectively better that we exist rather than not exist? Why should it be objectively better that this planet, or any planet exists rather than doesn’t exist?
It isn’t better objectively. It’s better subjectively. It’s better because it’s better to us, to someone, to something that cares and has an experience. Value only exists if there is an acting subject doing the valuing. As soon as we accept this premise, it follows that the only value is subjective value. So why not own this?
I’ll tell you what is for sure a losing game: to wait, expect, even demand to be valued and accepted by right of your mysterious ‘intrinsic value’—simply because you exist. This leads to entitlement, resentment, inaction, and ultimately impotence and emptiness.
Instead, go out and value. Put hands to metal and mud. Let the alleys and arenas of the word instruct you about what you want, about who you can be while you’re alive. Create an ugly, useless thing; then nurture it into something undeniable. Strategize to traverse where it’s very difficult to traverse; access in a way few or none have accessed. Start over again and again. Become someone you value. You don’t ‘have’ value. You value, and are valued.
