Empathy & Love

If one is to consider that there is an objective value that supersedes all of humanity, it is inner peace.

Nihilist commit suicide to find a peace unachievable in the world, ascetics reject themselves to grasp its the simulation of inner peace, and the common man labors himself to death in exchance for its ephemerality. While what may lead to one's inner peace is usually subjective from culture to culture and from individual to individual, in usual cases they are guided to it by their societal -or developed- standards such as empathy, guilt or shame. If these emotions are uninterrupted during the developing stage, one learns that loving another can usually lead to a state of equilibrium. Prophets cross culturally understand this and churn this idea into applicable principalities for the individual  and disguise it as the work of the Divine. However, divinity is not the reason religions become rationally validated through one's moral alignment. Such fallaciousness is found in contemporarily irrational commandments such as “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.” (Leviticus 19:19) Or in other words don’t wear clothes manufactured with both linen and cotton. Scriptures such as the former become contemporary customs rather than divine ruling. 

Just because one finds inner peace through acts of charity or empathy does not necessarily mean true altruism cannot exist. Altruism does not necessarily mean one person has benefited from the ‘sacrifice’ of another. Rather, altruism can find its fruition when one sacrifices what is deemed as valuable but for the sake of the other person, the product of moral gratification being preceding understood or not is irrelevant. 

The exchange of inner peace for materials of prejudiced value has birthed corruption throughout history. Ever since the beginning of time, people have praised items such as material wealth, putting it even above their presumably innate value of morality. How many despotic rulers truly find value in betraying both themselves and their people to usurp some grand illusory material pleasure? How many people in contemporary society betray themselves and what they love for items that are only deemed valuable to others? At what point will people begin to live for themselves!

This is not to argue that money is necessarily evil. However material or even concepts of virtue become deceiving in their fulfillment when it is only deemed as fulfilling by others rather than the beholder. Humans chase and wither their precious lives away for something so entirely useless to them. 

Who constitutes value? Is it authentically your own? Through one's introspection they can align themselves with what is truly valuable rather than fritter their lives away and wasting them only to understand their betrayal near death.