You hear some people talking about values, you hear it in the terms “value voter,” and “traditional values”. What these people never ask is “what if my values are wrong”. So many never questions whether their values are good, bad, or evil. People just accept the values they were raised or indoctrinated into with out question or doubt. But the truth is: values can be evil, your values can be evil, regardless of what you think about them.
There are many examples of evil values in history and the modern world. People use to take their children to public exactions, these were a public spectacles, real people dying was entertainment. Romans would take their children to the coliseum to watch people be killed as entertainment, including people being mauled to death by animals. According to their values this was not wrong, it may have even been considered good. Honor killings and honor rapes are happening in the modern world, the victim somehow “dishonored” their families, even if the victim was the victim of rape or incest, the victim is then “punished” for this “dishonor”. The cultural values of the murders and rapists tell them this is a good thing. This used to happen in Western countries and still does, though they are not called honor killings. People in Western countries still abandon children because of their children’s sexuality, gender, political or religious beliefs. Even when children are not abandoned evil values can lead to abuse and bullying. People have been bullied for not fitting what cultural values said they should fit into. The abusers and bullies may not even realize they are abusing and bullying because of the values that cause the abuse and bullying. Gay, bi, trans, and even straight kids who their parents feared were not straight have been forced into conversion therapy to “fix” them and make them straight. Conversion “therapy” is harmful, abusive, causes psychological trauma and does not work. These come from the evil values of the parents, evil values that lead parents to force their children into this. How much has people’s evil values lead to less visible abuse and bullying because of the victims political beliefs, ethnicity, appearance, likes, dislikes, subculture, disability, not being neurotypical, etc?
All of this happens because of cultural values, values that say their children or family members are bad, values that might say abandoning ones children or family member is good. Even if the cultural values say it is wrong to reject, kill, or worse a family member or child, it is the cultural values that leads to the rejections, killings, or worse because the values that say their children or family member are wrong or evil. The value that homosexuality is wrong, that being transgender is wrong, that values of “family honor”, values that put religion, God, or politics over family, friends, and people. These evil values just lead to pain, suffering, and death, they should be thrown away.
One might say that these are the exceptions, that these are the extremes. But they are not extremes, in many places these are the norms, historically many of these have been the norms. Even when these are not the norms, evil values can still cause harm because they still exist and have effects. The fact that values can be so evil means values should not be valued. Values should be doubted and questioned by everyone, when they are found to be bad or evil, thrown away.
A response to this would be: those are bad but most vales are good. Yes there are good values but that does not change the facts that evil values are part of a persons set of value, it doesn’t change the fact that evil values are still evil, that even the good values can be corrupted by the evil values, and the argument still doesn’t address the problem that these evil values are still accepted with out doubt and question. These people who hold to their evil values don’t think their values are evil just as those who defend values as positive don’t think their values are evil. Evil people don’t think of themselves as evil, they think what they are doing is good and right, or at least neutral. People with evil values, don’t think their values are evil. When these evil values go unchallenged they remain and can even spread.
The problem here is cultural values, these ideas spread and are accepted through cultural indoctrination by parents, teachers, media, and religions. These are accepted and enforced with out thought or question. In that system and environment evil values can thrive and spread. Those evil values can benefit those in position of power and authority, including clergy (yes it is a position of power and authority) thus those in positions of power and authority help spread and enforce the evil values. The solution to this is questioning and doubt. Everything is up for criticism and question from anyone including one’s children and all ideas should stand on their own. Religion, tradition, and how one was raised should not be accepted as reasons to believe anything or to act in any way. Reason, logic, and evidence should be the standards by which one’s beliefs and actions are be based. If reason, logic and evidence says one’s values are wrong, then those values should be abandoned. Even if someone or some book claims God said something, even if God did say something, even if that is how things had been done, and even if its what ones parents taught them, throw the evil values away!
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C.L. Who Writes 
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