Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" vs Pinar's "Democracy of Needs" Theory

In the absence of knowledge, we human beings "LOVE" to believe in truths. We connect a couple of dots and if the theory or story is plausible, there you go...now it is the truth, since we believe so...

Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" is no different. It is a theory, not a proven fact...We still do not know to this day, yet we "think" it makes sense. Why not? There is a hierarchy of what motivates the homo saphiens. The animalistic drives are in the bottom, has a huge space in this triangle and self-actualization, etc...all the great inventions of our minds are at the top of this visual pyramid, with a small space devoted to it, telling us that only a fraction of homo saphiens evolved to make it up to the top! Very plausible story. We love to think in terms of hierarchies. Why? Because it is linear and easy for our brains. Not because it is the way life is...Hierachies are a way to organize life and homo sapiens power and work distribution. That's it....it literally exists as a concept in our brains...because it is a useful thinking tool.

We put some color to this pyramid, boom now there is no reason to believe that it does not exist...it is truth, indeed...it has a plausible story, the rainbow colors and a pyramid...yes now we believe in this....

In light of what i have gatherered regarding how our brains work and how life is, i do not buy-in to Maslow's theory any more. Instead i propose 'Democracy of Needs' (Hopefully one day, i will be credited as the person, who coined the term:)) Ecosystem of Needs would be more appropriate, yet not as catchy counterpart to Maslow's theory, hence let's go with the term 'Democracy of Needs'...

Since this is a blog entry, i will not write a book here (which i might do one day, time availing):
Very shortly, how our brain works [according to 'General Theory of Love' and various internet sites i read so far] is my theory's foundation blocks, since once we understand how it works, all the rest, i.e., drives, motivations etc, will flow naturally

1 - Reptilian brain: core, automatic functions, very primitive, no emotions, no brotherhood concept, a lizard can eat its baby to nourish itself

2 - Limbic Brain: emotional regulator, "fight or flight" mechanism, brotherhood concept is developed...hopefully we fight together:) very crucial for humans to survive...In front of a dinasour, we had to choose from 'fight' of 'flight' options...for instance 'negotiate' was not an option:) so as humans we do need each other indeed....very old part of the brain....what makes us distinct from the reptilians is not the fact that we laugh...it is the fact that we love our babies and literally not eat them! According to the book 'General Theory of Love' (wonderfully written, fast paced book on why human beings love and need to love each other), love is the main life energy we have....love connects us to the rest of humanity, which we cannot survive without...

3 - Neo-cortex: tool making part of the brain, very very useful for precision tasks like throwing an arrow...Imagine if the men from our tribe neeeded to game hunt a deer, they would need to "plan" this incidence, since they do not have many chances to hunt the deer...so they begin to talk and plan about this experience by drawing an image of the deer on sand....here we go 'neocortex' is developed:) This part of the brain has the capacity to symbolize and make abstractions to plan an action....beyond that it is very useful to web a logic of arguements to convince others...

According to one theory, neo-cortex gives us the capacity to lie, as well....which is a preferred characteristic by females, i.e., the males who has a bigger neo cortex has become popular...which further led the way for homo saphiens to have bigger neo cortex as the time passed...due to this selection of males by the females. Why is this the case? Why do females prefer males who can lie...??? Can the answer be, even if the males cheated, they could conceal it very well:), thanks to their neo-cortex....lol... this would also suggest that negotiation is also as a result of our neo-cortex:)

So the story of triune brain is: our reptilian brain was not enough for humans to survive, they needed 'others/ group' to survive, i.e., we are tribal animals. After that given our physical weakness (for instance we do not have physical skills like a cheetah to run after a deer), we needed to make tools, first to warm ourselves in the cold nights, and second of all plan how to hunt the deer down for our next party, since we do not have vast resources, and deers are not plenty around...this planning / forecasting part of our brain later on evolved to link the concepts created in our brains needed for planning purposes into logic and symbolically presented language..which then led to our ability to convince a person, people and then masses....so to my mind persuasion is a by-product our tool making habits...which got favored by the females...and still is...

So, what are the interlinkages amongst these brain areas? First of all, they co-exist...co-live...We can link Maslow's needs to these 3 brain categories, not one to one, yet we can fit them to at least one of these brain areas....Yet let's say we are not hungry any more, our reptilian brain does not switch off and let the limbic brain take control...once limbic brain is happy, it begins to self-actualize itself.. this is not the case.Emprically we find see that people who self-actualize are usually the un-happiest...An other counter evidence, would be babies (based on "General Theory of Love"), who are fed properly, but deprived of their mothers' love, die....we cannot live without love....maslow believes that food is the requirement, the rest builds on that...possible, yet improbable...to my mind...

Just because we have food, does not mean that we can now go into the next level of 'love' and then to self-actualization.... this is not a computer game, where we need to pass through many stages to achieve our ideal end...the matter of the fact is we need food and love and tools all AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Even, i can claim that love is what we need...the rest eating and tool making are just sub-serviant to this...There is no hierarchy, there is an ecosystem of drives..our brains and evolution are not one dimensional, our brains actually carries itself what it needed to survive throughout the history... The brain parts are not designed to work in harmony, they are layered on top of each other, depending on the need of times. They actually might conflict with each other, perhaps most of the time, no wonder our inner voices....We all need these 3 systems to work together...

The non-existance of hierarchy does not mean that there is no center-piece in this ecosystem. More and more i am convinced that love is in the middle...this is the capacity we developed to CARE for each other, SACRIFICE for each other, SHARE with each other! This is the basic motivation....

How about the main need? I believe we are driven by only one thing, which is to re-create our own existence, similar to a tree so to speak...we are part of the nature....and all beings in the nature have so far had one drive, which is 'TO BE'... And for our being, unlike a tree, we need to love each other...."All we need is love" already told to our world by Beatles...i agree with them.

What makes us believe Maslow found the truth? Our neo-cortex again...since our neo-cortex receives external stimulus and evaluates to its own existing concepts/ tools/ symbols/ abstractions so Maslow's theory with a pyramid, hierarchy and color is very possible to our 'Thinking' neo-cortex..it fits into the templates it has created to perceive and explain this world....

What makes me, then to posit that Maslow is mistaken? My limbic brain:) Because unlike neo-cortex, limbic brain carries the essence of who we are and "feels" that hierarchy of needs is improbable. Neo-cortex calls this intuition...ability to sense and know without reasoning:) Even neo-cortex acknowledges that limbic brain does not need it at all times....

Hope-fully scientists will prove the workings of the brain, so that we feel that our drive to love is legitimized....and do not need to invest in lonely self-actualization paths...since we will know that once we love, we self-actualize...once we love the people we are with, once we love what we do, once we love our children, parents, friends once we love people from other civilizations, we are our self now....no need to climb Everest...we just need to love, love, love...and love...

Mirror, Mirror Tell me!

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?" to which the mirror always replies "You, my queen, are fairest of all." ....sure everybody remembers these infamous lines by the Queen in Snow White Fairy Tale...

Mirror is and has been playing a very crucial role in human existence! Why do we LOVE mirrors? Why do we need to have mirrors in the gyms???

Sure there is a functional benefit/ explanation/ justification of why we want to live with mirrors, i.e., we want to 'monitor' / 'control' our physical appearance and make necessary adjustments if needed...is that it? just a monitoring tool for us??? not really...mirror has a far further significance than its bare functional value add in our society....which is linked to 'transformation' concept we discussed in our previous blogs...

Mirrors are tools enabling us to re-assure ourselves that we are or in the course of be-coming power-full! They project our image in our mind and helps us to continously prove to ourselves that we are power-full living beings...Mirrors 'tell us' (like in the case of Snow White) that we are the person we want to be or be-come!

Did you ever wonder why we have so many mirrors in the gyms??? Because as important as music, the mirrors help us to get / stay motivated...Mirrors show the movie of how we transform from 'weak' beings to 'stronger' beings by using various tools we exercise with to pump up our muscles, confidence to survive and reach our dreams in this world!!!

How far can we flex the 'mirror symbol' in our civilization?

The reason why the concept of the mirror exists, is because we want to continously feel stronger by reassuring ourselves that we do exist indeed:) We, the human beings need to feel secure at all times, at all cost! Yes, fear is ruling us...unless we begin to embrace love to save ourselves from the chains of fear...

What are the instances, i.e., concrete manifestations of 'mirror' symbol in our lives? For instance:

- Facebook: we use it because we want to talk to friends abroad:) Come on...whether we are aware or not, we love Facebook, because it makes us 'feel secure' by enabling us 'connections', i.e., group of people / our tribe we can survive in....yet more importantly it reassures us of ourselves...our existence....we want to exist...we do not want to die...we are afraid of dying...so we need to express and prove our existence over, over, over, over, over, over and over again...

so we talk about ourselves all the TIME...Descartes claimed ' I think, therefore I am'...In our new technologically advanced world, we became ' I FACEBOOK, therefore I am'....exactly we are what we claim ourselves to be on facebook...we are THE STATUS UPDATES, we are the FRIENDS we 'claim' to be connected with some-how....

We want to use all the means available to re-assure ourselves...so what else???

We consume:)

Not only 'I facebook, therefore I am'....'I CONSUME, therefore I am'...Great for the product marketers...they market objects to people to reassure who they are or who in their minds, they already are...and just want to see a mirror image in this physical world...

Completing the story circle:

Let's reiterate : WHY do we facebook or consume in the first place?

We do facebook or consume, because we feel weak! That's it! Fear, fear, fear!

What do we FEAR?

DEATH!

It is sarcastic, that even if we fear, we still die...So why do we fear?

Simple! Because we POSTPONE death...yet we still die...Fear does not end the situation...it only postpones to a later date, giving us more time in this World...How do we use this time? To enjoy the world??? Very rarely...we keep fearing death...in this time we gained...what a human drama?

So how do we POST-PONE death?

We continously EM-POWER ourselves by creating ourselves through communication, linking to other individuals and acquiring symbols of power...which are actually only ways to motivate ourselves...i.e., our will power to live...Most of the things we do during the day are just ways to motivate our individual beings to 'continue' to live...

we WANT to LIVE....WE want to live...WE WANT TO LIVE!

Why do we want to LIVE?

This is a mysterious question, being attempted to be answered by various philosophers to date...Not a clear answer to date...significant ones being, we live, because:

1 - we want to survive

2 - we want to reproduce

3 - we have a goal to accomplish in this Life, which includes creating a connection with the Divine, loving and caring for a person, completing an objective

No matter which human question we tackle within the realm of marketing philosophy, they all direct us towards the 'will to live'....this is the simple basic motivator of humanity..Independent of 'why we live'...there is an observable fact over generations that 'we want to live'!!!

Can the answer be? 'We want to LIVE, because "WE" wants to live'...??? [grammar is correct:)]

HE-MAN: "I have the POWER!!!"

What is the main commonality between beauty, pharmaceutical, sports, education, fashion industries and He-man cartoon?

The fact is that they are all in TRANS-FORMATION business! They sell transformation to their customers.

What is Transformation?
According to Beolingus Online dictionary[http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en;service=dict-en], transformation means in genetics modification of a cell or bacterium by the uptake and incorporation of exogenous DNA or in outside world the act of changing in form or shape or appearance...The main criteria for something/ someone to transform is the fact that its physical shape has to CHANGE.

So what KIND of change?
Usually it is connoted with positive change in state, i.e., going from weak state to a more powerful state.

WHY is there a Change?
Because the transformed organization has a NEW MISSION and execution of this mission requires a NEW Body:)

HOW does Transformation occur?
The organism needs tools to go forward in a new body towards the new mission. These tools can be internal tools (like reflection, change in assumptions) or external tools like He-man's sword:) A caring environment is also key to support you as you go through transformation [not a prerequisite, a nice to have criteria]

Pharma, beautification, education, sports, fashion industries, they are all promising the customers transformation, ...i.e., customers we want to be trans-formed...Let's go back to He-man to understand the transformation concept better [Firstly i believe that if we cannot understand a concept simply, we cannot understand its application in complex matters, which only dilutes the core concept]

He-Man ("The Most Powerful Man in the Universe!"[1]) (IPA: /ˈhiː.mæn/[2]) is a heroic fictional character in the Masters of the Universe franchise. He is the alter ego of Prince Adam and also the twin brother of She-Ra. The character's name comes from the word he-man, which was once used to describe a strong, masculine and virile male. He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

The planet's inhabitants are dealing with the aftermath of the Great Wars, which devastated the civilizations that once ruled supreme over all lesser beings. The Wars left behind advanced machinery and weaponry known [He-man's sword] only to select people. An early incarnation of the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull gives He-Man some of these weapons, and he sets out to defend the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor

[Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/]

So the storyline is clear:
1 - Prince Adam has a mission: He wants to defend Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor
2 - Prince Adam has a tool: He has the sword that em-POWERs him to BE-COME He-man. He becomes " The most powerfull man in the Universe"
3 - Prince Adam has a loving/ caring environment, with our famous Orko:), Sorceress, etc, which only helps him to flourish

So, how is He-man linked to the industries mentioned before? Simply through transformation...All these industries em-POWER people with tools to BE-COME some-BODY else:)

a - Pharma industry: If you feel weak, you just need to drink vitamins, magic pills, there you go:)
b- Beauty industry: If you want to have power over men simply, just look pretty;)
c - Sports industry: If you want to be respected as a strong person, literally become strong physically
d - Education industry: If you want to BE-COME useful and earn money/ accomplish any other goal in life, you need the tools education supplies you with (e.g., information, perspective, connections, etc)
e - Fashion industry: If you want to become a powerful man, you need a Rolex:) and wear expensive suits

and many more industries are built on marketing transformation to their customers:) For instance Edward Bernays (we owe him the the honor of creating public relations/ marketing) leveraged feminism movement to market cigarettes to women...so if women wanted to become powerful, they had to do what their male peers were doing, i.e., smoke a cigarette:) Did you know that initially men used to wear high heels to avoid mud on the streets...once men stopped wearing high heels (subject to research, potentially because streets got better infrastructure), the industry leveraged women's desire to be on the same level as men and marketed high heels to them, which in time become even more connoted with elegance and femininity.

What other underlying common concepts are there beyond 'transformation' with which humans relate to the world? According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman [http://www.marketingmetaphoria.com/deepmetaphor.html], there are 7 main deep metaphors which marketers need to leverage, i.e.,
1 - Balance
2 - Transformation
3 - Connection
4 - Container
5 - Journey
6 - Resource
7 - Control

I also do agree with this list of deep metaphors at first glance. These are basically the SIMPLE activities early homo saphiens did to survive and more importantly to reproduce, i.e., these are the ways in which humans used their environment to survive/ reproduce.

Marketings' main input is homo saphiens...hence we must master these concepts if we want to have a place in the history of marketing and contribute to our civilization. Bonne chance!