More first-world problems

I should probably clarify the previous entry. A helpful voice in my head pointed out that I would probably not have written it like that if I was starving and had no food nearby, or if I was sitting on a rock in the winter. Likewise I would probably not belittle the need for security if I was a jobless cancer patient in America. All of which is true, although someone else might have done so under those circumstances or worse.

Perhaps we could say that outer circumstances tend to set one limit, while the soul of the individual sets another.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, at the face of it, without context, is simply pure materialism: The naïve belief that humans can improve simply by getting more stuff. But humans are made of both matter and spirit. If it were not so, it would not really matter (no pun intended) whether we progressed to self-actualization, since there would be no self to actualize.

Even when we have fulfilled a lower level of existence, there are several things holding us back from progressing to a higher: Culture, subculture, family values and upbringing, neuroses, habits and simply our own free will. But by using the one little part we can actually do something about, we can gradually begin to move.