How it’s been so far…
What we’re aiming for…
Shocked at all the rape and killing? Don’t be. It’s a lot milder in these images than it has been in reality over the last 2 million years of human history. It is my contention that human beings only need five things to really be happy. These five things are easily represented by an inverted pyramid, shown immediately below. You can also think of my view as an evolution of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to account for the 21st Century situation, which is quite unique to our times.
The Five Things
(Currently Relevant Model)
The Five Things are Simpler and why Maslow is Outdated
If you are reading this, you are obviously literate and also happen to have an internet connection (however temporary it may be) and those two factors alone make it quite unlikely that you are really subject to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Aside from Self-Actualization, the fifth step, and top of Maslow’s pyramid, you are likely to have had at least some success in achieving the other four rungs on this particular ladder. In fact, you may even have achieved the fifth rung. And yet, you may also remain somehow unfulfilled. A malaise of boredom, lack of purpose and a general sensation that life should be happier than this, seems to haunt modern man. No matter how successful Maslow’s theory says he is.
It is time for Humanity to evolve past this bottleneck and onto the inverse pyramid that exists above Maslow’s, or my theory of the five things.
The very first step of this inverted pyramid, Self-Knowledge, is indeed the cornerstone of the whole edifice. Miss this step out, and all the rest will never be reached to any truly satisfying degree. Generally, subsequent steps will also tend to be easier to attain in the order presented, though this is at least somewhat arguable, unlike the first foundational point of self-knowledge.
Over the next few weeks, my posts will be labelled with a code ranging from CE1 to CE5, each corresponding to one of the five steps (further defined below). This way, by using the Blog Topics function and clicking on one of these codes, you will be able to bring up all the posts relevant to that section.
Relationship problems? CE 2
Self-awareness issues? CE 1
Money issues? CE 4
Need to make better friends? CE 3
Wanna save the world? CE 5
If you want a bit more info on each of the five things, you can get a thumbnail expose here below.
1. Know Yourself
This inscription was one of the seven sacred things written at the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece. Truly understanding this point is no easy task. Most men never truly achieve it and this is sad, because their happiness is closely related to the attainment of this first principle. Knowing yourself does not just mean to know your inner workings. It also means to Know… Yourself. Find out by yourself. Figure out the truth of things and how they relate to you on your own, in your own way, that suits your purpose, ideas and abilities. If you spend your life doing this, testing and discovering for yourself, you are eventually also likely to come to the deeper meaning of what knowing yourself really means, and that is, that you are not who you think you are. Your personality is mostly an agglomeration of outdated memes and attitudes you inherited from your parents, ancestors and cultural background, mixed in with whatever traumatic events (good and bad) you had happen to you in your formative years. A lot of people like to feel sorry for themselves about this and like to pay psychologists lots of money for years discussing it. It would be better if you spent that time and energy discovering for yourself who you want to be. Who you really are under the memes and what is your truest, most comfortable, happy nature. You may want to start that process here.
2. Someone To Share it With
You may have noticed your body is either male or female. By design, we cannot continue to reproduce without our opposite sex. Biology has wired us a certain way. In addition, we are also social animals, but before we get to that, sexual intercourse has been the very real and (until very recently), exclusive way that humanity has propagated itself from the beginning of time to now. This has built in all of us, regardless of new technology such as artificial insemination or sexual orientation, a powerful need to want to be loved and to love. In particular to share our minds and hearts with “another”. And for all the objections of the loners, the psychotic and the sociopaths amongst us, like it or not, our biology has wired us this way very strongly. Even though social changes such as the fact we no longer burn homosexuals at the stake and that the Queen today might even admit to the existence of such a thing as lesbians, mean that alternative lifestyle choices are more accepted today, the point remains the same. As for the more gregarious among us that feel that limiting oneself to a single life partner is so passé, all these types are saying is that they would like to extend that deep and intimate sharing to not just one “other” but a whole bunch of “others”. Preferably all very fit and good-looking “others” too thank you. Even if you count shifting from one significant other to the next in rapid succession, the point is still that we all need to be able to share our internal world with someone else that we feel is able to appreciate it and vice versa. Watching that romantic sunset, or that crappy but funny B-movie, or even, taking part in a wild orgy, is just not the same if you can’t do it with your loving “other”.
3. A Group of people that stimulates you and, you them (a.k.a. — Friends)
These are generally referred to as “friends”, but the reality is that sometimes these people are actually “enemies”. People like your boss, who expects more out of you and although in a not nice way, he or she may indeed spur you to be able to perform at a level of efficiency you would otherwise not have known you could do. Similarly, a competitive friend may spur you to do more for yourself. And a group of people that have no qualms to shove each other up the mountain as they go, is an invaluable asset to have in life. This is why the Japanese refer to both martial arts training and work as “pushing each other up the mountain”.
4. The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, how you want (a.k.a. — Money)
Personal Freedom. In today’s world this often boils down to money, but unless you have truly explored the first of the five things, you will forever be chasing this Dream Dragon without ever catching it. I have met billionaires who have far less freedom than I do. It is not money that is your true source of power when it comes to personal freedom. It is your mind. Get your mind right and getting the rest is easy by comparison. You may also be surprised to discover that owning a Ferrari, really doesn’t feature in your true needs. It may of course, but mostly, it probably really doesn’t. Not sure? Go hire one for a few days. it costs a lot less than buying one and you’ll at least find out for yourself.
5. Giving Back to the World
If you achieve all four of the things mentioned so far, you will still have some void. Filling it is the continuing exercise of giving back to life whatever it is that your gift is. Every one of us has some talent, some potential, some ability, that if truly explored and truly developed, has the power to be an inspiration, a help, a guidance, a source of pleasure, happiness, safety or comfort for others outside of yourself. And you can spend your entire remaining life doing this and continually improving upon it, because there is always someone else that can benefit from it.
This is what this site is really about. So if you are interested in a specific one of the points above, you can quickly access all the blog posts that refer to it by selecting CE 1, CE 2, CE 3, CE 4, or CE 5 from the Blog Topics list.
Happy reading, happy learning and happy teaching.
