Not long ago, computer software, particularly word processing, with WYSIWYG feature – What You See Is What You Get - was still rare. Word Perfect and WordStar, two major word processing software two decades ago, did not yet have such feature. When Microsoft launched its famous Word in 1983, WYSIWYG became a common thing.

For those who still remember the non- WYSIWYG era, typing and printing documents were often two different tasks. While typing documents was not so complicated, printing the documents sometimes was cumbersome, especially if the documents required some specific layout. I still remember my experience in 1988 when I tried to create a two-column layout on WordStar for my organization’s bulletin. Having typed all documents correctly, what I got was a rather ugly looking print out. Then finally, after trials and errors, exhausting my time and money, I got what I wanted. I wish there were WYSIWYG facility.

And here we are, living in the WYSIWYG era, not only in terms of using computers, but almost in all aspects of life. People nowadays wish WYSIWYG for almost everything. They see cars advertised on TV, magazines or newspapers and they wish they got one of them. They see wonderful houses advertised on TV and other media, and they wish they lived in one of them. They see great places showed on TV and other media, and they wish they could travel to the places. They see good-looking women or men on TV and other media, and they wish they could get one of them. Seeing is transformed into wishing. The eyes stimulate desire, desire commands the brain and the brain dictates the action. It is not a surprise that many people’s action are inspired by what they watched on TV or movie and read on the magazines or the Internet.

Unfortunately, seeing is not only believing, but also it is often deceiving. What you see is not really what you get, but it is what you gamble. People risk their reputation because of their “seeing”. Bill Clinton is obviously one of them. Akbar Tanjung is another example, committing corruption for political gain. And worse, many people risk their lives because of their “seeing”. Young women risk their future by selling their bodies; young people risk their lives by addicting to drugs; parents risk their children’s future by paying no or less attention to their children’s moral education. And a nation risks its future by abandoning values.

Ironically, while people are so familiar with the WYSIWYG feature, they forget the other WYSIWYG – What You Seed Is What You Get, which is essentially the basic rule of life. People seem now to embrace a new philosophy of life: You don’t seed, but you get. 

No wonder, today people trade honesty for pleasure and integrity for artificial gains. Dishonesty and hypocrisy are becoming predominant. Virtue is vanishing and vice is on the rise. Respect for others, peace, tolerance and non-violence attitude are deteriorating. Humility becomes an unfamiliar attitude and integrity is disappearing. Moral values are in decay.

People are so absorbed by “see” that they forget to “seed”.

Value, all that matters

All people have values, regardless their cultural background and social status. Values are guiding principles of life. Shaver and Strong (1982) suggest that “values are the criteria by which we judge things to be good, worthwhile, desirable or bad, worthless, despicable or somewhere in between the two extremes” (p.17)[i]. Eyre and Eyre (1993)[ii] say “By values we mean the standard of our actions and attitudes of our hearts and minds that shape who we are, how we live, and how we treat other people” (p.15).

Values may be also defined as guidelines and beliefs that aid and direct making of daily and long run decisions especially those pertaining to how we should respond to individuals and groups that make up the society in which we live.

Thornburgh (1991) say, “Sometimes we think that laws and values are the same. They are related but they are not the same. We establish laws to codify certain rules and standards that allow us to live together peacefully as a free people. But it’s our values that inspire our laws – not our laws that establish our values. Laws tell us what we must do. Values summon us to what we should do” (p.205).[iii]

Values can be described as a system of personal traits which are in harmony with the inner nature of an individual and which are in accordance with the values approved by the society. However, not every desire, goal and aspiration accepted by the society can be regarded as values. Values are those desires, goals and aspirations that go toward the benevolence of individuals and the society. The negative aspects accepted as normal behavior, cannot be accepted as values. Whatever normative behavior leading to the exploitation and misery is negative and cannot be called as a value. Such behaviors are the devaluation of human life.

However, desire and values are often mixed not by street criminals or lay people, but mainly by the people at the very heart of our political, social and business establishment.  We live in a moral relativity world that embraces the idea that as long as desire is not yet satisfied, values are negotiable.  There are no absolutes according to this way of thinking.

The apple champion, high tech guru Guy Kawasaki and the author of seven books including Rules for Revolutionaries and Selling the Dream gave the Baccalaureate Address at Palo Alto High School in 1999. “Playing to win, however, does not mean playing dirty. As you grow older and older, you will find that things change from absolute to relative. When you were very young, it was absolutely wrong to lie, cheat, or steal. As you get older, and particularly when you enter the workforce, you will be tempted by the ‘system’ to think in relative terms. ‘I made more money.’ ‘I have a nicer car.’ …Worse, ‘I didn’t cheat as much on my taxes as my partner.’ ‘I just have a few drinks. I don’t take cocaine.’ ‘I don’t pad my expense reports as much as others…’

“This is dead wrong,” continues Kawasaki. “Preserve and obey the absolutes as much as you can. If you never lie, cheat, or steal, you will never have to remember who you lied to, how you cheated, and what you stole.”

Kawasaki concludes, “There absolutely are absolute rights and wrongs.”

Does it mean that time and social change can justify the relativism of values? Can it be that cheating was bad yesterday, but it is good today? Or can it be that cheating is a replacement of traditional value of “honesty” by modern value of dishonesty? Cheating and dishonesty cannot be accepted as value, either yesterday, today or tomorrow. And values such as peace, harmony and non-violence, truth and honesty are all independent of time and social change. These values are absolute and beyond time and space. John Oxenham (1989) has discussed that these values are indispensable to human beings both individually and collectively.[iv] The society which rejects those values would not be able to sustain itself, but would disintegrate.

Once Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values -- that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.” Mr. King spoke to his nation, but his remarks are applicable to all nations, including Indonesia.