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"Values.com looks devoid of ideology, but proposes a secular religion that accepts the status quo

While channel-surfing last night I stumbled on a TV commercial selling the idea that people should say ”please” and “thank you.” After the Miss Manners seminar, the ad sends the viewer to the Values.com website.

The values.com website is a hodgepodge of feel-good slogans and stories, sponsored by something called The Foundation for a Better Life (FBL). Here is how the Values.com website describes the foundation: “The Foundation for a Better Life began as a simple idea to promote positive values. We believe that people are basically good and just need a reminder. And that the values we live by are worth more when we pass them on.”

Besides the website, FBL pays for feel-good, values-based TV and radio spots, billboards, podcasts and a message board for inspirational stories and quotes. The website never mentions who funds FBL, but to its good, at least it states explicitly that FBL neither accepts contributions nor charges membership fees nor gives grants to other organizations. It claims not to have any religious or political affiliation. The only affiliation mentioned at the website is with The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAKF).

On to the RAKF website, which describes RAKF as “inspiring people to practice kindness and pass it on to others.” It’s another feel good website with stories and quotes about kind acts, ideas about how to make people kinder in the workplace, at home and elsewhere, a blog on kindness and links to “kindness resources,” which include other organizations and more anecdotes of people being kind to others. Although a 501(c) 3 organization, RAKF is privately held and funded; accepts no donations, grants or membership dues; and does not provide financial assistance to individuals or organizations.

Only by investigating on the Internet a little bit did I discover that both foundations are funded one hundred percent by Denver right-wing billionaire Phillip Anschutz, who Forbes describes as one of the richest people in America. Besides oil and real estate, Anschutz owns a number of professional sports teams.

On its surface, these two organizations and their websites are innocuous enough, spreading a non-ideological and homogenized love and goodness to the planet. A careful analysis, however, reveals that in fact these organizations lend subtle support to the current inequitable economic and social realities of the United States by distracting people from addressing real problems.

Let’s start our analysis by taking a look at the list of 88 values that Foundation for a Better Life lists at the Values.com website:

1. Achievement 2. Ambition 3. Appreciation 4. Believe 5. Believe In Yourself 6. Caring 7. Character 8. Charity 9. Class And Grace 10. Commitment 11. Common Ground 12. Compassion 13. Compliments 14. Compromise 15. Confidence 16. Courage 17. Courtesy 18. Dedication 19. Determination 20. Devotion 21. Do Your Part 22. Drive 23. Education 24. Encouragement 25. Equality 26. Excellence 27. Foresight 28. Forgiveness 29. Friendship 30. Generosity

31. Giving Back 32. Good Manners 33. Gratitude 34. Hard Work 35. Helping Others 36. Honesty 37. Honor 38. Hope 39. Humility 40. Including Others 41. Ingenuity 42. Innovation 43. Inspiration 44. Integrity 45. Justice 46. Kindness 47. Laughter 48. Leadership 49. Learning 50. Listening 51. Live Life 52. Live Your Dreams 53. Love 54. Loyalty 55. Making A Difference 56. Mentoring 57. Motivation 58. Opportunity 59. Optimism

60. Overcoming 61. Passion 62. Patience 63. Peace 64. Perseverance 65. Persistence 66. Practice 67. Preparation 68. Purpose 69. Reaching Out 70. Respect 71. Responsibility 72. Right Choices 73. Rising Above 74. Sacrifice 75. Sharing 76. Smile 77. Soul 78. Sportsmanship 79. Spread Your Wings 80. Stewardship 81. Strength 82. Teaching By Example 83. Team Work 84. True Beauty 85. Trust 86. Unity 87. Vision 88. Volunteering

It’s a strange hodgepodge of etiquette, Dale Carnegie-style positive thinking, ideas shared by all religions, ways to “play by the rules” and notions that tend to support the establishment no matter what it is. These are all general terms that most of us would agree should form the basis of decision-making. We should seek “excellence” and “justice,” and we should “do our parts” and make “right” choices.

But the fight to preserve these “values” is as bogus as the campaign to “support our soldiers” was during the early phases of the Iraqi War. Everyone supported our soldiers, even those opposed to the war. What action can an individual in our post-industrial society take that doesn’t support soldiers, except maybe not holding their jobs while they’re off fighting? What exactly did pasting a bumper sticker on your car do to support the soldiers? At its heart, “support the soldiers” was a shill and a code word for “support the war” and everyone knew it at the time.

In the case of these 88 values, the code is more subtle. These values can apply to anything. A dictatorship or state ruled by one party would be just as likely to list all these values as a representative democracy would. Virtually all these values (with the exception of “true beauty”) would come in handy in training an elite force to torture and engage in illegal assassinations. Many of these values would make a perfect substitute for “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which means “work makes you free” in German and was hung as a sign over the entrance of several Nazi concentration camps. Those in favor of a woman’s reproductive rights are equally able to find solace in contemplating these values as those who wish to restrict these rights.

The amorphous quality of these values, and of the concept of kindness as well, make the campaign for “values” and “kindness” mere shills for maintaining the status quo, which as people are discovering is a fixed game in favor of those who already have money and power, a game which 95% of the population is currently losing badly.

By creating campaigns, the organizations take our minds off of our real problems such as addressing global warming and creating a more equitable society and economy. And why would Mr. Anschutz not want to get our minds off these problems, since dealing with them might upset the current status quo, which has generously rewarded Mr. Anschutz even as it has hurt the thousands of workers who serve the food or clean the floors in the venues where his many professional sports teams play.

From the standpoint of Mr. Anschutz then, isn’t it better if college students and adults are engaged in programs to support “values” and “kindness” than in organizing in favor of unions, a higher minimum wage or better environmental regulations? And doesn’t the spread of all these feel good stories make people feel better about their current circumstances?

The idea that we should all rally behind the need to “believe in yourself,” “volunteer” and “practice” unifies the country in an artificial way, like flag-waving does. But it’s a false unity that serves merely to support the way things are now because it’s not a real action that we’re united behind, such as the real action of boycotting the Komen Foundation. By replacing real-good action, these campaigns distract us from addressing real problems. By serving as a distraction, Anschutz’ organizations quietly support the economic and social status quo. Just as “support the troops” was code for “support the war.” So is the values and kindness campaigns really campaigns to support our current unfair system.

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"The Message or the Messenger: The Mysterious Foundation For A Better Life

Does it matter who's behind the curtain?

The Foundation for a Better Life sponsors those slick TV spots promoting ethical values like kindness, sportsmanship, charity, and sacrifice. I have long wondered where they came from, and belatedly visited the organization’s website, Values.com, where I spent quite a while clicking through their extensive links to descriptions of core ethical values and inspiring stories. Not bad. The only deficiency I could see with the site was the lack of any explanation regarding how the Foundation was funded, who ran it and who was responsible for it. The site describes itself thusly:

“The Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, started in 2000. Our sole objective is to promote positive values, using print and broadcast media.

We want the stories we share about the positive actions and values of others to serve as inspiration for someone to do one thing a little better, and then pass on that inspiration. A few individuals living values-based lives will collectively make the world a better place.

The Foundation does not have a political or religious agenda. Our values are selected with the hope that most individuals would find these values universal, encouraging, and inspiring. The Foundation acknowledges that each person has a unique lens through which he or she views the world. Naturally there are religious, nonreligious, political, and cultural views that give meaning to our lives. Our objective is to provide a wide spectrum of values without any intended agenda or slant and provide an uplifting message around each one.”

And this appears to be exactly what the Foundation does.

The individual who funds the media spots and the foundation is Phil Anschutz, a reclusive, politically active billionaire who holds, among his other right-ish positions, that the teaching of evolution in the schools is wrong and that gay rights should be limited. He is the owner of the conservative publication The Weekly Standard, and also launched the Washington Examiner, a proudly right-leaning newspaper with local websites around the nation. But unless you believe that ethical values are inherently conservative (and, sadly, some people do), there is nothing political about Values.com or the TV spots. They are pro ethical conduct.

Yet because this is an Anschutz project, many believe that the site is some kind of a trick, with a catch. For example, this article described the pro-ethics ads as “propaganda.” My rule of thumb: if someone regards a suggestion that it is good to be kind as propaganda, I don’t trust them. Whenever the staff of the foundation is asked about its benefactor, it replies that he wants the project to be about the message, not the messenger.

I think that’s fair, and I think it explains why Anschutz keeps his name off the site. He is controversial and divisive enough that his reputation could trigger a cognitive dissonance reaction in  many viewers, reducing the credibility of an important and beneficent message.  We should regard the ads and the website as a gift to the culture. Nobody has to agree with Anschutz’s politics or business practices in order to benefit from the inspiration they provide.
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Related comment: I was originally moved to investigate the website after seeing this ad, about sportsmanship. The sentiment is fine, but the context is wrong. In basketball, as in baseball, football and other sports, no player is required by the rules or sportsmanship to correct a ref’s call that goes in his or her team’s favor. In basketball especially, where only a fraction of fouls are called at all, this would lead to confusion and chaos. Unlike tennis and golf, it is not considered sportsmanship to reverse a referee’s call by confessing and penalizing your own team. It is considered stupid.

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I was compelled to bring this to you because the commercial came on during a high school basketball game on Fox. 

So the Weekly Standard, the rag that helped bring you the Iraq war, has now expropriated John Lennon's "Imagine" to sell its agenda? 

I can't imagine a greater insult.

NDU: 

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Yeah, it is a rich man's media (that's an opinion I value).