As an anthropologist I often discover small hacks about how to read people. I have been pondering for a while whether or not to share this particular one so here it goes:
For people not dealing with the economic world values are a tool for expressing the importance of concepts, ideas and actions in their life. In the best case scenario, values are a toy for priests and philosophers. Below I will make the case that the values in our life and the value of a stock or a coin, tell the same story about human nature.
When people talk about values they cherish they are really shilling their own perspective that is in direct competition with something else. Similarly, in the cryptocurrency markets people engage in forums, advertising their own coin in order to pump the price up. As many of you know, what is important is not whether one believes in a coin but rather how one makes others feel about it. One can promote a shitcoin without believing that it has value and someone will buy the perceived value whether that is true or not.
Human values work much the same. We hear politicians talking all the time about how important the values of honesty and integrity are so people would buy the idea and invest in what they are promoting. People vote for the values the politicians represent, not the politicians themselves. Nonetheless, when the right time comes for some political manoeuvring politicians often lie, leaving the masses in discontent. In the stock and coin markets we call this a pump and dump. One promotes a coin's value by letting everyone else to buy and then sells huges amounts, leaving everyone else bag holding .
There is no real value in anything other than the one we let others perceive. This is the raw harsh truth about life. A value is nothing by a hypothetical facade of what something is worth, often based in just how it is promoted and how rare it is. Take for example the market of a natural ecosystem. The value of an amoeba's life is worthless due to its abundance in the system. The value of a female Iberian lynx on the other hand is valuable due to the very few numbers that remain and the advertising that has been going on to sustain it. What ultimately dictates the value of of the amoeba and the lynx is the narrative we create about them in regards to their demand and supply. Similarly, desert sand is worthless next to gold. Lying is not considered a good value because everybody lies.
If human values are indeed as subjective as the value of things around us, then what does that tell us about ourselves? Many people stick to the classic index of values that involves the classic pack of love, family, patriotism, religion. It is inevitable since this is the package that is shilled the most among the masses and takes some work in order to be maintained. It is much like a blue chip stock. Almost everyone is "invested" because they have been around for a long time and have a secure, stable value. They are a safe investment and thus more people build the entire meaning of their life around them. Nonetheless, there is too much supply and the demand can be filled quite easily almost by everyone in regards to those values. Everyone has them more or less with little or not try. This is also the reason that if you list them on your resume, it won't help you separate yourself from the crowd.
The transference of financial values into the human spectrum is great way to evaluate whether something that we hold dear is worthy. Love, kindness, justice, peace, honesty, respect, openness, loyalty and equality are worthy but so common that have become cliches. The ones that hold these values don't usually make a difference. The ones that make a difference are the ones who also have values of deception, manipulation, fraud and greed and they are ready to flip any of them if it's necessary. In other words instead of investing in some good values they day trade and hold everything ready to adapt depending on how the overall market reacts.
This explains why many CEO's are characterized as psychopaths and why the people that go ahead in life are those who understand how the world works in respect to changing values much like a chameleon. At the end of the day people will always follow a chameleon whale whether it holds Bitcoin or political status because it will help them rise as well. Most follow the pump of a value and they will flip if it serves them. Holders, watch, get angry and criticize but at the end they are left bag holding. After a while they forget and repeat the same mistakes, continuing to sustain the market.Some just admit at one point that this is how life is and decided to follow the "way of the flip".
I am not advising your be an asshole and flip your values but with this post I aim to at least educate people in regards to how the world works and how to defend from people around them that use this technique. I understand that this is a harsh reality for anyone to accept but this is exactly how the world works. This is how the masses end up holding worthless shilled values that the big guys flip on them.
Actions say a lot about who we are. I have been around for awhile and this technique never failed me. You can tell a lot about a person's real life values by watching how they play the financial markets. At the end of the day a value is a value whether it is stock, an idea of feeling.