An enquiry into the future of values

Koochiro Matsuura, Paris

At a time when the world seems to be undergoing an unprecedented crisis of values, it is right that an organization such as UNESCO committed to instilling the values of peace in the minds of men and women should pose the question of the future of values.

Between the widespread impression that values no longer exist and the bogeyman threat of a return to a "moral order", there is scope for an enquiry into future trends. The Future of Values, assembling some 50 contributions by leading writers and thinkers who participated in the 21st Century Talks series organized by UNESCO, proposes a number of lines of approach.

For values are still very much with us even if their appearance has changed. It may even be that there have never been so many values in contention in the history of humanity.

One of the most striking effects of globalization is arguably to reveal the extraordinary plurality of values and cultures. If we are today experiencing a crisis in this regard, it is not because values have disappeared but rather because we have lost our bearings in a world marked by often contradictory values.

The crisis we are experiencing is not so much a crisis of values as a crisis concerning the meaning of values and our ability to govern ourselves and give a direction to our lives.

Is it possible to speak of a "twilight of values"? Theories placing the emphasis on the historical and cultural relativity of values have undermined the belief in philosophical, religious and artistic absolutes to which the Enlightenment with its universalist certainties still subscribed.

Yet to speak outright of the "twilight of values" would surely be to overlook the fact that in many regions of the world people continue to rely on traditional frames of reference to give meaning and order to their lives as individuals and in society.

The crisis of values to this extent cannot be said to be universal. One may indeed wonder whether some countries, rather than posing questions about the "future of values", should not be asking themselves about the "future of our values". Yet, at a time when words and images from one part of the world circulate to television screens in all other parts of the world, and when the interdependence of countries and problems is growing apace, what region and what community can claim to remain indifferent and impassive when values are called into question, wherever this may occur? All cultures are equal in dignity. Each can be seen as embodying part of the human totality.

Does the fact that values today exist in close juxtaposition mean that we are heading towards a collision between a world founded on the rejection of traditional values and a world that refuses such a rejection, thereby giving rise to what might be termed the "clash of values"? Or are we rather witnessing an intermingling and hybridization of values?

On this point, it may be said that every culture contains individuals and groups that distinguish between what is just and unjust and make their evaluations accordingly. All values are thus liable, in different cultural contexts, to be evaluated, devalued and revalued. This is to say that values evolve and that they can be shaped in common and debated and negotiated between potentially very different actors.

What we have here is an expression of the creative diversity of human cultures and their shared sense of belonging to a single human community. The challenge today is to ensure that the ethical effort is largely directed towards the global community and that this new ethical orientation is based on the idea of dialog between cultures.

But does this scenario not carry with it the risk that values may be reduced to a speculative game? It has already been observed that, in a world ruled by the law of supply and demand, our conception of moral and aesthetic values tends to approximate to the stockmarket model. The phenomenon of fashion would seem to be invading our conception of values. How can the central question of education continue to occupy its rightful place in a world governed by the ephemeral?

We may also wonder about the consequences of possible changes in religious and spiritual values and the rise of new political values. Whereas representative democracy seems in crisis in many countries, associative democracy is developing rapidly.

What are the values inherent in these new networks of affinity, alliance and communication? Given the decline in patriarchal structures, are we moving towards a feminization of values?

Will this lead to the emergence of new values whose transmission will call for multidisciplinary education responsive to the plurality of cultures? This is what is at stake in the dialog of civilizations and cultures, which we should encourage if we wish to avoid seeing communities turn in upon themselves, which is so often a source of misunderstanding and conflict.

We must also be careful to avoid the twin dangers of the erosion of cultural diversity and the growth of inequality.

In an age marked by globalization and the rise of the new technologies, the preservation of cultural diversity will be a key challenge. To illustrate the point, 6,000 languages are spoken today and this figure could be halved between now and the end of the 21st century.

The same is true of the cultural and intangible heritage, which we have a duty to promote and preserve as a common good of humanity. In view of the erosion of diversity, we need to develop an ethic of responsibility so as to ensure that all cultures enjoy the conditions necessary to their sustained existence.

The loss of meaning is perhaps no more than an illusion. What we should rather be talking about are shifts in meaning and the creation of new meanings.

Let us wager on the future: What if the radical reform to which we aspire were to come about through knowledge and the spread of knowledge? For knowledge is essentially creation, renewal and exchange.

Obviously the knowledge societies taking shape will not lack values, quite the opposite. The problem will not be one of loss, but of choice. UNESCO's role is to stimulate and serve as a forum for debates of this kind, which seek to redefine and anticipate tomorrow's values. It is in this spirit that we have posed the question of the "future of values".

The writer is Director-General of UNESCO.