My interpretation of this was promoting robustly good values (e.g. violence is bad) at scale as an effective intervention.
For instance, these are values that the UK government tries to promote:
“Champion democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and address global challenges, including through campaigns on preventing sexual violence in conflict, reducing modern slavery and promoting female education. Promote human and environmental security through London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference. Deepen relationships between states and people, including through the Commonwealth Summit.”
1. The fact that this is a government paper makes me think of “people coming together to write a mission statement.” To an extent, values are agreed-upon by society, and it’s good to bear that in mind. (Working with widespread values instead of against them, accepting that to an extent values are socially-constructed (or aren’t, but the crowd could be objectively right and you wrong) and adjusting to what’s popular instead of using a lot of energy to try to change things.)
2. My first reaction when reading the “Champion democracy,...” list is “everybody knows about those things… boring”, but if you want to do good, you shouldn’t be dissuaded by the “unsexiness” of a value or pursuit. That could be a supporting value to the practice of altruism.
My interpretation of this was promoting robustly good values (e.g. violence is bad) at scale as an effective intervention.
For instance, these are values that the UK government tries to promote:
“Champion democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and address global challenges, including through campaigns on preventing sexual violence in conflict, reducing modern slavery and promoting female education. Promote human and environmental security through London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference. Deepen relationships between states and people, including through the Commonwealth Summit.”
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/827788/FCOAnnualReport201819.pdf#page=32
A few free ideas occasioned by this:
1. The fact that this is a government paper makes me think of “people coming together to write a mission statement.” To an extent, values are agreed-upon by society, and it’s good to bear that in mind. (Working with widespread values instead of against them, accepting that to an extent values are socially-constructed (or aren’t, but the crowd could be objectively right and you wrong) and adjusting to what’s popular instead of using a lot of energy to try to change things.)
2. My first reaction when reading the “Champion democracy,...” list is “everybody knows about those things… boring”, but if you want to do good, you shouldn’t be dissuaded by the “unsexiness” of a value or pursuit. That could be a supporting value to the practice of altruism.