Soapbox: It’s About What They Need

by on Sep.29, 2009, under Soapbox

The Hierarchy of Needs. Learn it. Live it.

The Hierarchy of Needs. Learn it. Live it.

As I write this, an article in a blog about my geeky interests, I am acutely aware of everything that supports this pursuit. I am aware that I am alive, and breathing.

I am aware of my last meal, and that I can get my next meal without difficulty.

I am aware of the roof above my head, the walls around me, and the lock on my front door, protecting my property.

I am aware that I have been spared the worst effects of the recent typhoon, and that my friends and family are also safe.

I am aware that I have a wife, a family, and friends that all love and support me in my endeavors.

I am aware of my small professional and educational achievements.

I am aware that, at least to a small but loyal tribe of people, my views are read and respected, something that fills me with much gratitude, and perhaps more than my share of self-esteem.

I am aware that my so-called creativity, my vision, my philosophical inclinations, are all resting on a happy conflux of all of these things, and that the loss of any of them would call my attention away from such things as anime, or video games, or RPGs to more urgent things, like food, or shelter, or companionship.

I am an extremely fortunate individual. And I am extremely grateful.

The more widely-read among you probably took one look at the diagram above and realized that I have been referring to Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Looking over it, it seems basic and obvious. But how many times have our leaders stressed nebulous, abstract things like GDP and economic growth without providing the basic needs like food, water, and medical attention to the people? How many times have we heard people quick to condemn the morality of their fellowmen without feeling the pangs of hunger or the desperation of acute poverty firsthand?

These needs are universal, and timeless. As Posca said to Brutus in the series Rome:

The Roman people are not crying out for clean elections. They are crying out for jobs. They are crying out for clean water, for food, for stability and peace.

Show me a leader who can provide all of these things, who will value them over greed, self-glorification, partisan politics, and mudslinging, and I will show you the person who I will vote for. Show me a people who will inconvenience themselves and forgo the luxuries they have grown accustomed to, and even risk their own personal safety and well-being, in order to ensure that each and every one of their fellow citizens have their basic needs met, and I will show you a people I would be proud to call myself a part of.

The people have risen to the challenge. I expect our so-called leaders to do the same. If not, they should cede (or surrender) their posts to people who will.

I am acutely aware of how privileged I am to be standing on my soapbox and speaking my mind, and to live in an age where my words can be read by anyone who cares to read them. But this post isn’t just about what I want to say anymore.

It’s about what needs to be said.

Or as Mal told Jayne in Firefly:

It’s my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another. Ain’t about you. Jayne. It’s about what they need.

(If you haven’t already done so, please help by donating or helping out at any of the relief centers on this list.)

EDIT: The EU has donated 2 million Euros to the Philippines to help the Ondoy relief effort. Thank you to all our friends from the EU!

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