As I mentioned in my original post, I
am a student of Psychology and Sociology. I believe them to be very
broadly relevant subjects, as do many universities, clearly, since
they are considered mandatory courses for most first-year students.
As I look back, I'm glad I chose to study these subjects in depth,
even if they are somewhat under-appreciated in the marketplace. This
is because I believe they are incredibly useful in building a working
understanding of the complex motivations of individuals, the grand
social dynamics that shape the world, and the intricate web of cause
and effect that links the two together. More and more of us are
coming to the realization that we live in a world where everything is
connected, and if any of us are to ever have a hope of understanding
the world in any real and meaningful way, it is important to have a
grasp of just how these intricate connections interact.
Many of us enjoy playing armchair
psychologist for our friends, or bandying about pet social theories
over a beer at the pub, and so we think of these topics as intuitive,
but the more research is done, the more this proves not to be the
case. While some of the key factors that contribute to healthier
individuals and societies may be fairly easy to understand, there are
also a great many factors that we have, historically, gotten wrong
over and over, and continue to do so today. This is why I consider
Psychology and Sociology sciences like any other, where it is
important to acquire empirical evidence, and use it to refine our
knowledge in a systematic way. Sometimes it is hard to maintain the
necessary objectivity because of how personal our views of
individuality and politics are to us, but it is precisely because
these subjects are so relevant to improving our lives that we must
struggle to remain objective, and respect what the research tells us,
even if it conflicts with a preconceived belief. I don't think it at
all hyperbolic to argue that the future of our global society depends
on our ability to do this.
When I was in school, there was a
particular theory that resonated with me, because it seemed to
explain much about our needs as human beings with fairly elegant
simplicity. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was an attempt by Abraham
Maslow to understand the motivations of the individual, however, I
believe it can be extrapolated to explain a great deal about the
potential benefits of poverty reduction and education, the existence
of social classes, why inequality exists at all in society, and why
it is ultimately self-defeating for any society that tolerates it.
More information is available here:
In a nutshell however, Maslow was a believer in the potential of human
beings to achieve great things, if only given the opportunity. He
postulated that there are sets of needs that we as human beings are
driven to meet, beginning with the most physiological such as food,
water, air and shelter, and rising to more social and intellectual
needs – in order: safety, love, esteem, and ultimately
self-actualization. He maintained that while more basic needs remain
unfulfilled, we cannot effectively address higher needs, and spend
very little time considering them. While it is fashionable in
conservative circles to believe the poor lazy when they don't “pull
themselves out of poverty”, this simplistic view fails to consider
how the poor often do just that when given sufficient opportunity,
and the basic resources they need to think about more than living
hand-to-mouth. Depriving people of basic necessities in order to
create “incentive” has proven to be a cruel and futile effort,
tantamount to class warfare.
For most of us, it is possible to
imagine that a young mind with the potential to be another Albert
Einstein could very well exist in the slums of an impoverished city,
but might never graduate from high school, being constantly
preoccupied with the admittedly more pressing question of where his
(or her) next meal is coming from. This, I fear, is exactly the
scenario being played out in many parts of the world, and when one
thinks about this being played out hundreds of millions of times
over, one can start to get a true sense of the amount of human
potential being lost. The fact that this can happen at all in a
society is, to me at least, representative of a failure on the part
of that society. After all, at the core of the social contract is an
understanding that by working collectively, we can ensure that more
of our common needs are met. At this point in history, with our
technology and experience, we should in any part of the world be able
to guarantee every citizen their most fundamental rights, and to not
do this is to admit either incompetence or corruption. Furthermore, by failing to ensure
the security of basic needs for citizens, governments are by
extension failing to provide even the possibility to pursue other
needs. This robs individuals of not only their material needs in the
present, but of any real possibility of a meaningful future.
Compounding this is the fact that
poverty and its concomitant problem of poor education are often
self-perpetuating across generations, particularly so without state
assistance. Poverty simply breeds poverty, and while there are
admirable exceptions - people who have beaten the odds and escaped
poverty – this does not change the fact that the system, as it is,
has essentially stacked the odds against them. In this case, where
the system does not serve the majority, it is the system that needs
to change, not the people. What makes this difficult is the prejudice
against the poor that gradually becomes entrenched in a society.
Classes evolve as this sort of state failure becomes systemic, and
what may begin as a economic downturn may, over time, turn into what
we are seeing in the United States today. While the wealthy once
struck a balance with the rest of society, it is now considered
morally acceptable to eliminate subsidies for the poor and create
further breaks for the super–wealthy, a situation that only fifty
years ago would have been considered morally contemptible. What has
made it particularly easy in this case is that the media has colluded
in convincing the lower classes that they too can “make it” some
day as well, thus dulling their sympathies for their average fellow
citizens. The reality, however, is that most of this generation will
see their economic prospects decline, and the majority have mortgaged
their future and their children's future on a long shot, rather than
fighting for their rights.
Time after time, social studies have
demonstrated that inequality is toxic to societies, and although I
typically let my readers do their own homework in regards to points
that I make, this is critically important enough for me to make an
exception and share the following:
If we are concerned at all about
creating more just and prosperous societies as we move into the
future, it is imperative that we start to clearly understand these
facts, and act upon them in measured and appropriate ways. There are
some fundamental fallacies and a few outright lies that underpin our
current system, such as the myth of perpetual growth in a closed
system, or the myth of trickle-down economics. No system based on a
falsehood can survive for very long when tested against reality, and
we are already watching as our current economic model creaks and
groans, a sputtering testimony to what happens when greed is put
before humanity and common sense.
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