Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs And Environment Preservation
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is described as a theory of human motivation where individuals strive to reach the highest level of consciousness and wisdom through a sequence of stages (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). In other words, Abraham Maslow identified five levels of needs/motivation hat a human being wishes to satisfy starting with the lowest and most important. Once one need is satisfied, the person will seek to satisfy the next immediate level and the process continues until he reaches actualization.
Basic/physiological needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy and are the most important since they satisfy the need for survival including food, shelter and clothing. A speaker, while presenting a speech to students in one of the community schools where there is high unemployment explained the importance of Maslow’s hierarchy in relation to the environment. First, by preserving the environment, there is an assurance that food will be available as it is through the environment that we get good climate for cultivation as well as a source of construction materials. In addition, environmental preservation will enhance employment opportunities that will cater for the immediate needs of the society.
Having satisfied the basic needs, the next most important need is safety/security, both physical and psychological. The speaker explained that the security need of the community will be satisfied when they avoided destruction and depletion. For instance when water catchments are there will be no farming and unemployment would persist, causing proliferation of crime and a threat to human security.
Ego or esteem needs come just after safety need is satisfied. In this case, people will like to feel accepted and to feel a sense of belonging. It will be fulfilling mentally and socially to engage in community environmental conservation projects that will enhance interaction and sharing ideas in the process of preserving the environment.
Once the ego needs are satisfied, then individuals will seek to be recognized and respected as well as have internal confidence. In the environmental preservation, once community projects serve their purpose of uniting people, there will be need to check that the individual activities environmental preservation are visible. For instance, one would like to feel respected for the effort he/she has exerted towards the environment. This will not only serve to build self confidence in the individual, but also will ensure there is progress in environmental preservation.
Lastly is actualization where the individuals would like to feel that they have reached their full potential. The sight of a green environment will give assurance to the individuals that their efforts have intimately borne fruits and there will be a sense of achievement. This will also create assurance that the efforts have positively transformed lives of many people in the community.
Before the founding fathers talked about democracy the governance was through direct rule and the voters would only participate in making laws. The founding fathers initiated the establishment of a people’s decree in leadership through voting in order to ensure the government operated efficiently. According to the founding fathers, participatory democracy was their view to efficient government. They advocated for freedom of press as a way of spreading information concerning democracy. They also employed the freedom of press to write the US constitution. This was after witnessing the work and impact of writings of two writes – James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in 1787. Indeed , most of worlds occurrences such as civilization, spread of religion, liberalization and so on were accelerated by the work of press either written or speech.
In today’s world, freedom of press has been ingrained in all spheres of democracy. The Press (currently called the Media) has been actively preaching democracy through their writings and speech about governance in different countries. Press has come in handy whenever there is election in a country to highlight the presence or fraught of democracy. However press freedom always works well when there is democratic climate. For instance, where there are no democratic institutions in place, “media freedom negatively impact on government respect for human rights” (Scientific Blogging, 2009).
However, Media may be effective where there is oppression by government, for example the great role independent media played the 1776 Independence declaration was available to people even before it was signed, yet some nations oppressed anybody found in possession of the information.
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