Elusive butterflies

During the 1950's a social psycholgist, Abraham Maslow, discovered why no one can achieve lasting happiness. You may recall reading about his theory "The Hierarchy of Needs" in college. The theory says that all humans in all societies seem to share the same basic urges. We must eat, we desire security, we lust, and we need the esteem of our fellow villagers.

People who do not follow these pattern are deemed to be sick, and they are labeled Sociopaths and Psychopaths. But for most of us, we are doomed to be driven by these predictable levels of Need.

Maslow created a chart that listed the Needs in hierarchical order with food being near the bottom and respect near the top. He asserted that when a person is at the "Need Food" level, all energy and focus is directed to satisfy that need. Once the physiological needs are met, the human tendency is toward satisfaction of psychological needs, such as the need for love, acceptance, respect. At each level, the brief moment of satisfaction is soon replaced by a nagging and persistent desire to get to the next level.

Our work lives are spent as metaphors for this model. In the beginning, we just want a job to pay the bills. Then we start bitching about the working conditions. Then we start thinking about how to keep from losing the good job we have found. Then we seek promotion. We want a nicer office, a more attractive secretary, more vacation time, free water. No sooner do we get our office with a door than we notice that some people have bigger offices and better furniture. Because we lust, because we envy, we spend our entire working lives never being truly satisfied.

Here is the problem: there is no upper end on the need scale. In apparent fear of running out of paper big enough to display a chart of all the needs humans can aspire to, Maslow copped-out by labelling the uppermost level with the term "Self actualization." He defined it as "becoming everything you are capable of being..."

No one can ever attain self actualization because there will always be... something more to desire. It's human nature. And it's the reason why no one is very happy for very long.

That's just the way it is. Cowboy up.