From the Inside Out, Redesigning Government

Tim Young

This is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs . It is a brilliant and simple way to look at the human condition, and what we all need in life. Currently, I would argue that we have a society that is designing individuals, and not a society designed around the individual's needs, at least not all the time. We are going about government and control systems in the wrong way, in a lot of cases. See if you can find any examples. I think the prison system is one example; if people were satisfying their needs better there would be less crime.

We are pushing down with control systems like flying death machines a.k.a drones, the Patriot Act, secret torture prisons and so on. Again, if these needs were being satisfied on a larger scale for individuals, we would simply not have to use such draconian top-down control systems.

This may seem obvious to many who work in government to help society satisfy these needs for individuals. I would argue that when these needs are not met for individuals, it causes massive problems that feeds the perceived need for more government -- like exploding prison populations.

We can do better, and we should.

I feel like starting with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and designing out and up from the individual, is the correct way to look at social problems. I hope you agree. Food for thought anyway. :-)

By Tim Young Feb. 26, 2013 Posted in elsewhere.