Values, freedom and money

The speaker discusses how society's core values have shifted from duty to freedom. In the past, duty to Queen, country, family, and employers was important. However, with the emergence of freedom in the 60s and 70s, the meaning of freedom changed. It no longer meant a traditional job and retirement, but rather a more fluid and dynamic life. The Internet and digital world further contributed to this transformation. However, the speaker questions whether freedom has been overshadowed by the importance of money. The financial crash and recent crises have led to a focus on self and away from making a positive difference to others. Compassion and service are still valued, but self-interest has also become prevalent. As another financial crisis looms, the speaker encourages reflection on core values and choosing between service to others or service to oneself. Hello, Jeremy Dieter, and welcome to the Insight Post for 22nd March 2023. How will money make a difference to your values? When I wrote Write Money, Write Place, Write Time in 2015, I described how society's core value has shifted from duty to freedom. I reflected that at the end of World War II, the overriding value our parents lived by was duty. Duty to Queen and country, the duty to the family, and duty to our employers. However, as we moved into the 60s and 70s, the core of duty began to lessen and a new value emerged, freedom. From the stories our fathers and grandfathers told us, we now know that freedom is what they were fighting for. For my generation, though, the meaning of freedom began to change. Freedom no longer meant the freedom to pursue a nine to five job working for a single employer, retiring at 65 and probably dying within the next 10 years. Instead, it meant being able to pursue a life that was more fluid and dynamic. The sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, the Beatles and the Stones were all symptomatic of this transition from duty as a core value to freedom. And then, of course, Alan Turing, Claude Shannon and Tim Berners-Lee, along with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wisniak, provided the final catalyst in this transformation. The Internet and the digital world, which has produced an IT based society. The route to self-expression, choice, individuality and freedom, as the late Richard Duval, co-founder of Egg Bank and Zoffa, so succinctly put it in 2005. Is freedom our primary value today? Were we right, I ask myself now, has freedom become our primary value or has it been subsumed by that one factor ever present in our lives? Money. I've written Right Money, Right Place, Right Time seven years after the collapse of Lehman and the ensuing financial crash. By that time, we should have recovered. But unfortunately, cheap money and central bank support became the norm, providing only an illusion of good times. So far, this decade has yet to be kind to the freedom trend, which I read about enthusiastically in 2015. Instead, Covid, war, the cost of living crisis and the return of financial instability have led to a focus on self and away from the true freedom gained by consciously acting to make a positive difference to others. Compassion and service are still popular values. Of course, not everyone has gone down this road. I wrote last week with immense gratitude of the people who are there for us in recent difficult times with kindness, compassion and selflessness and globally, examples of people making sacrifices for others and acting to improve the world abound. Today, people refer to this value as service, not duty, which is fine. However, the outcome is probably not very different from the duty of a bygone age. Moreover, today we have greater freedom to choose to act in our interest or the interest of others. But unfortunately for many, the freedom to act with choice, self-expression and individuality has led to self-interest, almost certainly exacerbated even subconsciously by the financial outlook at a personal and global level. So as we sit on the cusp of another global financial crisis that could impact us all if it gets serious, take a little time to reflect on your core values and decide which path you will take, service to others or service to yourself.