Know Yourself in Nature – 9
7/14/25
To know how to improve society, it is necessary to develop greater knowledge and understanding of abstract social issues. Ralph Waldo Emerson recommends we view ourselves in nature. Today, we live in a complex social world that we have created based on our knowledge of physical things. In many ways this “success” has removed us far from the realities of nature. But we are still the same humans with the same physical and psychological needs as people living in caves thousands of years ago.
It is easier to discuss human needs by describing the basics of how families have been successful in meeting their needs without the physical conveniences we have available today. This is a “back to basics” approach to thinking about ourselves as a part of the social and natural world.
Only during the middle of the last century did people start to understand why we do what we do. Our rudimentary knowledge of motivation indicates us humans have a list of physical and psychology needs that we must strive to fulfill. We will stive to fulfill them through socially positive or socially negative and often self-distractive ways.
A large percentage of the people that stive to fulfill their needs through socially positive approaches are products of a traditional family structure living among extended families and communities like that discussed in Message Number Three. A large percentage of the people that stive to fulfill their needs through socially negative and often self-distractive approaches are not.
Mark might consider, for contrast, interviewing individuals that fulfill their needs through socially positive approaches. He would not have to travel long distances to find candidates. The challenged people he interviews only make up a small percentage of those living in South Central Los Angeles. Along streets like Figueroa and nearby are locally owned businesses and well-kept homes surrounded by steel bars that serve as barriers against the unfortunate people that live on the streets.
The list of physical and psychological needs humans must strive to fulfill is not long but, as yet, not fully understood. First on the list are physical things needed to survive (water, air, food, shelter, clothing, good health, and sex). A second is a sense of safety and security. The third is being loved and having a feeling of belonging to a group. The fourth involves being esteemed and respected by others. The fifth is a feeling by individuals that their natural capabilities are being realized.
Society involves a complex interplay among individuals striving to meet their needs. Society categorizes individuals based on how well they meet their survival needs. Society also categorizes individuals based on how well they meet their survival needs through either positive approaches or negative and often self-distractive approaches.
For example, in “It Is What It Is” Ivy appears to be affluent and well-groomed and dressed, but she says that having material things have not helped her achieve her dream of being respected enough to have her daughters returned from legal separation. Society views her as an inferior person being a drug addict and a whore. She experiences love from her man, a drug dealer, and belonging to the “hood” group that she has attempted to escape from to live a different life.
But at the end of the video, she expresses anguish over not having produced something or done something that society might think of her in positive ways. She lacks personal accomplishments that will cause others to respect her.
It should be noticed that Mark has not given up on her. He is still encouraging her to change her life and do what she knows she should do. Hopefully she will; when the video was made, she was only 23 years old! She could have a much better future than her challenging negative past.
Of course, for Mark to achieve his goal for a better society, different broader-scoped factors will have to be developed other than him interviewing and encouraging individually challenged people. Ivy and thousands of others like her and their parents seem to be caught in a social trap that is holding them back. Our society has changed during the last 60 years. There have been many positive changes, but many negatives have developed that did not previously exist. Why is that? What caused the appearance of the negative changes?