In the 1940s and '50s, Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of human needs. These are certain requirements that, once met, will lead to each of us fulfilling our potential. From the base of the pyramid up, each of us must have met: 1. Biological and physical needs 2. Safety needs 3. Belongingness and love needs 4. Esteem needs and 5. Self-actualization.
Please note, the base of the pyramid is air, food, drink, initmacy, shelter and the like. Without those, we as human beings cannnot develop in ways that make us, well, human beings instead of clever, naked monkeys. But vast numbers of people do without these things on a daily basis. Renting trees, people.
So here's the question: Of the following things, would you be willing to give up one of them if it would guarantee every other person on the planet would have more than enough of all of them? Why or why not? And if you would, which would it be?
- Food (to prevent total starvation, let's allow for a maximum of 800 calories a day. Just know you might not always get that much)
- Clean, accessible water
- Intimacy (not just sex ~ intimacy)
- Weather resistant shelter
Pobble Answer: This one is tough. I want the anwer to be "Of course I would give something up!" I'm not sure that's true though and, as I have said on previous occasions, once you start lying in your own blog, there are problems. In the long run, though, I think I would have to agree to it. I don't think I could live with myself knowing the suffering I could have prevented otherwise. And I think I would give up the food. With everything else, I think I could manage. But wow...even I'm stumped on this one.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
8 comments:
why would you ask such a tough question? geez
i don't know... maybe i would choose giving up food, so long as i could still feed my family and have enough for myself not to starve.
I'll give it to you Pobble, you really took a Sunday and made it even more depressing with this question. Ha.
A an answer, there is no easy choice here, but I would go with the loss of the shelter because I'm thinking I could occasionally stay with friends who had something better and I could always live somewhere that had decent weather the majority of the time.
At least I hope I could . . .
Eeek! Pobble, I have to say, I'm stumped too.
I am a horrible person, I'll get that out of the way right this red hot second.
I wouldn't give any of them up. I would, and do, help by giving generously to charities which help those in need. My explanation is long, but it's along the lines of the whole "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" thing. I do help those in need, but, should it be at the expense of my own well being and that of my family? No. We are, indeed, part of a global community, and we each must take some responsibility in taking care of one another. It should no fall solely on one person to do it for us. If I knew, for instance, that one person would suffer so that I didn't have to, I wouldn't allow it. So, no, Pobble, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that you would starve to feed me.
There are other ways to help people, to teach them how to help themselves and others. That's truly how we grow as human being.
There, I said it.
PS: I answered my questions.
After living in the field, this is an easy one. Food. Food is not the center of my life and I noticed in the field this became an obvious thing. I'd be to lazy or unmotivated to stop the truck, get my propane stove out and whip something up. I lost quite a bit of weight, shrunk my stomach and am sure that my diet was below 800 cal. daily. What did I eat? Oatmeal and tea for breakfast, nothing much for lunch and a cup of soup or quesatilla for supper and more tea. That's it. I made it and was fine. I wasn't happy, but the food situation wasn't the cause. Total and complete isolation from humanity is what got to me, so I know that giving up that is not going to happen.
I'd like to think I could do without one of those things for the sake of everyone else on the planet.
That said, I don't know for sure but I think I'd choose intimacy because I have such a hard time with that one here in the real world anyway.
Lame, I know but there ya have it.
I don't know, and I don't think any of us have to give up any of these things in order to make life saner and better for the Somalis. Don't get me wrong--we may need to make modifications. (If America ate just one less meal with meat a week, we'd free up some food.) The Somali government definitely needs to make modifications--it seems to make them happy to see others in such misery. But in real life, it doesn't work like this game, for which I'm grateful.
*cough* cop-out! *cough*
My first thought was to go without the food. I probably eat less than 800 calories a day when I'm at home, but I don't think I could do that at work. So, I'll have to go with what every other save the world hero would do and give up intimacy. I am a people person, but if it meant that I could give basic needs to everyone on the planet I would do it.
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