The Human Condition Exposed Around the Election Cycle

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. - David Hume

Is the national election a telling barometer of people's en masse functioning with respect to the hierarchy of needs?  Perhaps it is, for you can observe large sections of party support and even third party supporters and surmise an aggregate sense of where people are in terms of needs on the scale of human motivations. Luis Durani in “The Teflon Don of Politics: Donald Trump andMaslow” strongly suggests that there is currently a large segment of American culture that hungers for a personality that produces a kind of drama that addresses their lower “base needs for security, including personal, financial, health and well-being.”  The very notion of the “American Dream” for any large constituency may simply be the next upper stage in their hierarchy of needs.

There are also those who are centered on vision for changing culture with creative foresight and want of leadership that shares in such pursuit of higher, more complex issues such as national and global economy, ecology, scientific innovation, education and—dare I say it—capacity for peace (vs. the long-standing, antiquated, conventional military industrial complex). I myself have experienced persistent shifting over the years with respect to how I view leadership based on my own maturation and movement toward self-actualization (human flourishing). I have come to appreciate a non-anxious presence in myself and in others, something that is revealed in times of crisis and in one’s everyday practices.

Of course, it would challenging to ever see an self-actualized leader elected as president, since less than 1% of the population gets to that level (according to Abraham Maslow). Perhaps the deep dislike of President Obama is due to the reality that he is closer to self-actualized, as suggested by some.  Caroline Presno lists the following self-fulfilling categories for which Obama demonstrates: possessing perspective, capacity to resolve dichotomies, being respectful and humble, problem focused, and understanding and acceptance of human nature.

If anything is telling during this election cycle, it is the instinctive need for safety and survival subconsciously driving a fact-bending way of seeing things. American political culture to the dismay of some cannot evolve into a multi-party contest (better alternatives) but rather must stay mired with strident, opposing views as people with whom we disagree—those who literally pose a threat. And so people overlook the flaws and lies of a candidate, twist and contort reality to fit their group’s view of, e.g., climate change, immigration, affordable health care, gun control, etc.

There is little doubt that lower motivational functioning is certainly at play this election. In past elections, you heard much ado about, e.g., the "family"; this election people at large are concerned about jobs, money, guns, ISIS. Out in the open are the magnifications of potentially dangerous aspects of the human condition and cognition, the exposure of salient vulnerabilities of peoples and the shear disappointment of many who find no consolation in the choices for leadership before us. 

Integrity: More than Honesty

Integrity is more than simply being honest and authentic, for it has a complexity that extends beyond the literature of being “true to self” and connects with other core virtues. By definition "integrity" is derived from the word  "integer",  meaning  "wholeness".  Systems with integrity towards a common purpose are balanced, in step, and working towards a common purpose.

Psychologically it conveys the human need to recover being-in-the-world and in society. That is, with respect to extremes of the mean good, we identify the excess as self alienated at the expense of others, e.g., arrogance, boastfulness; and the deficiency as accepting external influences, that results in inauthentic self (persona), perhaps even splitting or fragmentation.

Integrity speaks into self-differentiation, as it informs us of the practice and need for goals and committed pathways even when it may costs us. In the helping field this translates in how one provides treatment of others and self with care, evidenced by helping those in need, sensitivity to the needs of others, and self-care. This examination is most vital in most professions, since they inherently require us to work outside the rigidness of policy while still meeting goals.

We get a glimpse into the complexity of integrity via Giotto Integrity Test which measures and supports reflection  of habits, attitudes and behaviors that have impact on organizations.  

Giotto Scale	Areas assessed within the context of Giotto	Low scores may indicate	High scores may indicate
Prudence	Degree of care demonstrated when carrying out tasks [4]	Prefers to leave mundane tasks to others	Careful when carrying out given tasks
Fortitude	Attitude to work	Likes to keep work in perspective	Driven by a work ethic
Temperance	The ability to control aggression in whatever form	Impatient of the foibles of others	Slow to anger and calm in the face of adversity
Justice	The fairness shown in judging the actions of others	Tends to be more emotional or suspicious when making decisions	Balanced, rational and impartial in decision- making
Faith	The sense of obedience to organizational policy	More likely to lead and innovate than follow rules	Shows obedience to authority and a sense of duty
Charity	The degree of directness, honesty and openness in dealing with others	Closed and secretive about intended actions	Honest and open when dealing with others
Hope	Assesses a sense of purpose and forward-looking approach	Somewhat traditional and wary of rapid change	Resourceful and enthusiastic about the future

The results of the Giotto Integrity Test stimulate interesting discussion and often uncover rationale for interpersonal feelings of distrust, interpersonal tension and conflict. The resulting information can be used to develop an individual’s ability to identify individual differences and respond accordingly to improve interactions in the tensions of an organization or perhaps being-in-the-world. 

Longing and Lust: Progressive, Evolutionary Sources

I share two good sources that offer a potential to inform and assist us with navigating relationships by way of language and science in this post-modern era. Being illuminated on such topics as longing and lust (eros) is so vital today, for many are deeply lonely, many marriages for reasons they know not (mostly conventional and narrow reasons at best) and many are questioning the outdated forms of marriage seeking deeper meanings, fulfillment and belonging.

One source is Christopher Ryan who co-authored with Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, andWhat it Means for Modern Relationships. Ryan in an interview on Ted Radio Hour helps us to get at lust and sex with his scientific dialectic. 

Ryan argues, 

“Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of rampant ritualized group sex, mate-swapping, unrestrained casual affairs, and socially sanctioned sequential sex were all reported in cultures that anthropologists insist are monogamous simply because they've determined that something they call "marriage" takes place there. No wonder so many insist that marriage, monogamy, and the nuclear family are human universals. With such all-encompassing interpretations of the concepts, even the prairie vole, who "sleeps with anyone," would qualify.” 

The second source is “The Transfiguration of Aloneness: David Whyte on Longing and Silence” an article by Maria Popova concerning David Whyte’s meditation in Consolations:The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words concerning the word “Longing.”

Whyte provides this insight:

In the longing and possession of romantic love, it is as if the body has been loaned to someone else but has then from some remote place, taken over the senses — we no longer know ourselves. Longing calls for a beautiful, grounded humiliation; the abasement of what we thought we were and strangely, the giving up of central control while being granted a watchful, scintillating, peripheral discrimination. The static willful central identity is pierced and wounded, violated and orphaned into its own future as if set adrift on a tide.

Together these two sources support an inner conversation that may well help us along the path of experience from loneliness unto an unfolding knowing, getting at real substance of the flourishing spirit of humanity.