What if all my values are meaningless?

What if all my values are meaningless? Of course they’re not, but they might be, how could this be so?

I believe that I’m a good person but am I? What does it mean to be a good person? I guess it means to perform good acts. So if I don’t perform good acts then does it mean that I’m not a good person? Perhaps I need to be a bit more specific.

I believe I am a charitable person. So when I stop being charitable does that mean that I’m no longer a charitable person? Yes I think it means that I was once charitable but I’m not anymore. So if I want to be a charitable person I have to continue to be charitable until, well, until the end of my life. This seems right. Repeatedly performing good acts makes us good people.

However, we also assign qualities to a person that lasts their entire lifetime. He is a hero, he is a philanthropist, he is a murderer, he is a bank robber. It may have been just one act. The hero may well lead a life of being very nasty to others after his heroic act, and the murderer may regret his act and live a life of doing good. Is the murderer a bad person and is the hero a good person?

Does one act outweigh all the other acts one performs in life? Does it depend on the nature of the act?

What if it’s the other way around? Is the person who performs good acts all his life, who then murders at the end of it, a good person? Is the person who is very nasty all his life, but who is immensely good at the end of it, a bad person?

It appears that the proximity of the good or bad act to the present affects how we perceive the person. So if I performed many good acts up until ten years ago, but stopped then I don’t think I could call myself a good person anymore.

I think it’s hard to argue against repeatedly acting in a certain way as defining a person’s values. So can I have a value without actually performing acts consistent with that value? No I don’t believe you can. I can hope to be a charitable person when I can afford it, but I’m not until I am charitable.

It is the very acts, whether good or bad, that determine if we have good or bad values. Not the other way round.

We simply have beliefs about how we will hopefully one day act. I can express these beliefs as being good or bad if the associated acts are performed. There is no difference between these beliefs and any other imaginary construct.

These beliefs become my values only when I act. In some cases, the expression itself is the associated good or bad act.

My values are only meaningful as long as I repeatedly act in accordance with them and if I stop for a significant period of time I can no longer say I hold that value but that I once did.

So are all my values meaningless? Yes, if I never act repeatedly in a way that reflects the beliefs I hold.