A Preliminary List of Human Elements
Note: The following list of elements are expressed uniformly as ‘needs’ however, as the project evolves, other terms such as ’situations’, ‘experiences’ or others may prove to be more appropriate descriptors.
In order to humanely survive and thrive, man/woman must experience a balance of the inherent truths listed below. Ask yourself if each one of these statements is or has been personally true for you without passing moral judgment on yourself. You will be able to assess your balance of these elements in a later phase of the UHNA project. (although the list is numbered for identification there is no specific ranking for the elements of the list thus far)
01) The need to have one’s health
02) The need for shelter
03) The need for clean water
04) The need to breathe clean air
05) The need for healthy food
06) The need for access to consistent and sustainable sources of energy
07) The need to exercise caution through fear
08 ) The need to believe
09) The need to rationalize
10) The need to dream
11) The need to seek, define and understand one’s identity
12) Man/woman has the desire to be free, have the opportunity to follow and act on one’s own will / the need to be self determinate: to ‘not be dominated’
13) The need to dominate or manipulate a situation, scenario or person
14) The need to be aggressive
15) The need to be passive
16) The need to be complacent
17) The need to understand and seek truth
18 ) The need to be treated with respect and dignity
19) The need to be curious
20) The need to be mischievous
21) The need to be good
22) The need to be bad
23) The need to be expressive, physically, intellectually and emotionally
24) The need to be the recipient of an expression of love admiration or affection
25) The need to outwardly express love, admiration or affection
26) The need to destroy
27) The need to create
28 ) The need to procreate
29) The need to accomplish and move on to the next: satisfaction
30) The need to feel secure with: emotions, resources, society (environment); or to be taken care of
31) The need to enjoy or experience pleasure in (whatever)
32) The need to be entertained
33) The need to be entertaining
34) The need to laugh
35) The need to cry
36) The need to be angry
37) The need to be happy
38 ) The need to desire
39) The need to grieve
40) The need to seek guidance or help: parental, peer, supernatural
41) The need for social interaction
42) The need for privacy
43) The need to share
44) The need to covet
45) The need to hope for the future (our ability to uniquely perceive time)
46) The need to learn through experience and repetition
47) The need to apply learned knowledge
48 ) The need to communicate
49) The need to leave a legacy
Elements of this list will invariably be condensed, added or removed as the project matures.
December 15, 2007 at 8:09 am
Brilliant vision Scotty B!
I would like to add the need to receive love from oneself and the need to forgive and be forgiven. These are key to peace existing on the planet!
Thank you for keeping the ball rolling. Peace blessings,
m!chael
December 18, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Some suggestions generated as I sit here pondering what it means to be a part of a shared global humanity:
The need to BE safe.
The need to FEEL safe.
The need to respect and be respected.
The need to acknowledge and treat others as members of a common humanity.
The need to be acknowledged and treated as a member of a common humanity.
The need and opportunity to contribute to the global sense of a shared humanity.
The need to live as a member of a community and not simply as a dollar sign in an economy.
December 20, 2007 at 12:05 am
How exactly is this List will differ from a dictionary list of all known Adjectives and Verbs with “The need to..” attached to them?
After all - ALL verbs and adjectives exist BECAUSE they describe some connection to human behavior
This seems to me an amateur attempt at reinventing the field of Sociology and Physiology - better read a book by Steven Pinker, PhD “The Blank Slate” - you will get much needed insight into human nature.
December 20, 2007 at 12:50 pm
sam, i will do some research on your book suggestion but i think you are missing the broader point of the UHNA project judging by your oversimplified critique. all verbs and adjectives do not describe FUNDAMENTAL root behaviors common to all of mankind. for instance, ‘the need to smoke’. clearly, all people are not born with the inherent desire to smoke. however, one can analyze the psychological and physical desires of an individual to smoke…
the real point here is that there is a need for people to gain insight into the fundamental mechanisms underlying human behavior with the hopes that such a shift in consciousness can empower people to more benevolent and self determinate ends without infringing on the needs of others. if people can gain enough perspective to see that there are some mutual goals we all share then we stand a better chance of acting out of mutual compassion for each other.
i’m not really trying to re-invent any fields of study that exist, but perhaps create a more intuitively understandable and usable framework which can widely disseminate knowledge from many fields of study along with new perspectives.
December 24, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I have issues with the word need….The word need implies the lack thereof
http://deliberate-creation.johreiki.net/desire.vs.want.php
If given the power of the word desire versus the word need/want one can manifest creation by empowering themselves.
Instead of needing clean fresh air, one desiring to breath clean fresh air then is enable to manifest clean fresh air with increased awareness of it. The word need implies allowing some else to determine what and if your need are met by their own definition and not yours. The word desire empowers the individual, verses the word need/want causes disenfranchisement.
February 28, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The list seems “off” somehow, I can’t place why… yet.
When you say, “fundamental mechanisms underlying human behavior” that says to me, “human core needs”; human as opposed to some other organism(s) and core as opposed to additional, enhanced or luxury (IOW: that which is necessary for survival as opposed to survival plus extra-survival stimulation). From an ecological perspective, core human needs relate immediately to any given human’s ecological niche, ecological circumstances.
In light of this, many on this preliminary list seem extraneous or redundant. Before humans of diverse cultures and ecological realities/niches can agree on aany “universal” needs perhaps it’s vitally important to define the core-needs common to all humans regardless of ecological or cultural differences. If that’s the case, the list becomes necessarily smaller. From that base, one can expand outward and find flexible and negotiable “needs” that can be discussed and negotiated across cultural and ecological realities along the continuum, in order to meet the stated goal of the project.
Best of luck! A noble and needed project indeed.
March 8, 2008 at 5:05 pm
We need help to get over addictions, nurturing in our quest for growth, someone safe to vent with, love in our lives