Value Beyond Measure

Wendland-Cook is proud to feature the next in a series of responses to our current public health, political, ecological, and economic crisis of COVID-19. Joerg Rieger, Founder and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program started off the series with his article, “The Ugly Truth of a Pandemic and the Logic of Downturn.” Read Joerg’s blog here: www.religionandjustice.com/blog/the-ugly-truth-of-a-pandemic-and-the-logic-of-downturn

Rosetta E. Ross, Professor of Religion, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia

“…we need to look elsewhere in the world for what truly matters and for what can save us” (Rieger).

The logics of advanced capitalism tell us that it is foolish to look somewhere other than the markets for what truly matters or for salvation. Markets have become so deeply integrated into our lives that it often seems unimaginable to find value in things and ideas that cannot easily be described, with numerical accuracy, on a cost basis. A transactional ethic has become the nature of many relationships. Capitalist ideas permeate elements of religious traditions. In our post-Citizens United era, corporations outrank citizens in vying for attention from elected officials or constituting to whom officials have a sense of responsibility. And the list goes on.

In the meantime, many persons’ lives may be permeated by crisis based on the intersectionality of their “financial” social location with their race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, and immigration status. They persist in making meaning in their lives, which are valuable, in spite of ways the focus on markets urges us toward oblivion and to say and live otherwise. It will not be a surprise that financial social location may be a great determinant of lives lost during the current crisis.

Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic is an event that presents an opportunity to see the world in new ways, including to consider and re-consider on what to place value. Movements such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, immigrant rights, anti-human trafficking, and climate justice seek to remind us of this. Because of their continuing efforts and the efforts of groups like them, we know that despite our era of advanced capitalism, there are persons who hold ways of valuing that are not constituted by measures of market transaction. In our era, values such as the common good, and virtues like kindness, care for others, honor, do no harm, assistance, faithfulness, solidarity, integrity, etc., sometimes seem to be markers of bygone times and naïve thought. Yet many of these are being demonstrated by those on the front lines who are seeking to care for the sick and otherwise stem the tide of the virus. The stark reality of the significance of their efforts and of our dependence on them and their holding such values may be a reminder—a nudge—that helps us consider revitalizing our religious traditions as well as reconsidering what really is valuable, beyond the measure of the market.