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Maple: Value and necessity

World Cup and Olympic skier Wiley Maple was born and raised in Aspen.
Wiley Maple/Courtesy photo

As we enter the last days before the election, many of us are being bombarded by political advice, campaigns, and things that, in general, seem to make us deranged. At the hopeful heart of politics are our ethics and what we value — how we wish to be governed and by whom. And every so often, we vote — a chance to direct the future in a tiny way. Gone for now are the days in which we’d elevate the best of us to represent us. Again, we are forced to vote for a candidate who might implement a policy that we wish to see. Policy is some combination of necessity and value put into plan that is then made actionable. If we cannot find a personality to endorse, we find a candidate that hopefully aligns with our values.  

To think about such things and be able to have even the smallest influence on their possibility is, of course, a luxury. For too many, only the immediate necessities are worthy of consideration. For life to transpire, a steady combination of water, food, and shelter is required — though rarely mentioned in the list of necessities are other people.

After all, “Frodo wouldn’t have gotten far without Sam.”



Except in the rarest of circumstances, we rely on each other constantly to provide these necessities. At its base, these basic needs can create a condition we call health. Approximately 2 billion people every day cannot reliably maintain such a condition. It is only when a person or people is able to escape this race that they can hope to secure a semi-stable state. That is to say, when our necessities can be predictably maintained, a human enters into an entirely different state of being, we could call wealth.

That is to say time. Time to project our reality into the future in order to stabilize and protect these basic needs onto an endless tomorrow, freeing up our life for all sorts of things. When enough humans gather together to secure this condition, we call it civilization. From such a place, the sky is not even the limit. 




Civilization then is built upon secured necessities — how we acquire and maintain these conditions shape our values. It is not only that something needs to be done, but also how it is done that creates value. The further our values separate from necessity, the more abstract and potentially destructive they become. Hard work is a value that is closely tied to most necessities. In that, it requires hard work to plant and harvest food or to move water. To build a shelter or an aqueduct. Ingenuity, intelligence, invention, and imagination are all closely linked values that when acted upon can change how we plant and harvest food or move water. The better a people are at employing such values, the less need there is for hard work. More intelligent application decreases the need for labor. Thus, over time, a variety of intelligence has paradoxically come to be valued more than hard work — even still to create anything no matter how ingenious still requires labor.

The more a civilization starts to create values that are no longer connected to necessities, the more it unravels into decline. It is becoming harder and harder to pin down American values. Freedom, Equality, and Justice. Or Faith, Family and Fitness. Independence, Unity, Diversity and Privacy.

Sometimes, we hold two values that seemingly contradict each other. Science and Faith. Independence and Unity. Necessity and their acquisition create the foundation of civilization. Values often work to maintain that foundation. But sometimes, we lose our way piling too many abstract values on top of a neglected foundation. Many of the hardest jobs in the world are also the most necessary but valued the least. And the more we devalue them, the more likely they are to be done poorly or avoided altogether. Farming and food production are essential to our survival, and good food is often valued most on a day-to-day basis, and yet farmers are among the least-paid workers in our country. Jobs in water management and sewage are perhaps the most essential but share a similar fate. To boot, they are often “shitty” jobs that no one wants to do in the first place. Shouldn’t some combination of hard work, necessity, and undesirability drive a higher salary? 

“In 1968, a sanitation workers strike lasted for 6 days in New York. As trash piled up chest high, a state of emergency had to be declared and demands were met. It turns out New York couldn’t live without garbage collectors. Just a few years later in Ireland 1970, one of the only reported banker’s strikes lasted nearly 6 months. Eighty-five percent of the money supply was inaccessible — experts predicted an economic disaster — but nothing much happened. Eventually, bankers got back to work with few of their demands met.” (Rutger Bregman)

Today, often the more obscure and abstract an industry becomes, the more we seem to value it — even if its function is largely irrelevant.

Our civilization has become more and more complex new industries are constantly rising and falling. Value is derived and given. And only sometimes does it align with necessity. Hilariously, I sometimes get paid to ski — substantially more than a lifty. But if the lift fails to run and the lifties and mechanics can’t get it started, a bustling industry swiftly begins to collapse. And one calls into question what is necessary and what is abstracted luxury.

We choose our values — but not what is necessary to survive. And so, I implore you to vote. When you are out there, maybe ask yourself: What do I value are those values linked to necessity? Food and clean water? What happens when our climate shifts and disrupts our food and water systems? Do you value freedom? Freedom to what? Freedom to bear arms perhaps — does that include freedom of choice? Is it independence or unity? 

In this country, we get to choose what we wish to see become a reality. 

“A people that values its privileges over its principles soon loses both” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

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