The Family Jewel

Growing up is such personal business, and the development of communities is such an interpersonal business. Among our individual experience, we share those experiences with other individuals and groups. As the human body is connected as individual cells of an integral system, so is the human family connected by each family member as a functional part of a working body of men, women and children.

A healthy family life will naturally support the satisfaction of the first three of the five basic needs, as described by Abraham Maslow. Parents provide the satisfaction of the physical needs, safety; security and the need to be loved and to belong. Likewise, an authority or governing body of a people should make every effort to make the standard of life obtainable by every family. Being disadvantaged has a terrible effect on the human psyche, which religion has emphasised for thousands of years, however those skeptics who rely only on claims by science will find the same conclusion as illustrated in an article from the Journal on Health and Social Behavior (Jun., 2000),

“The stress of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood with high rates of poverty and mother-only households may take its’ toll in depression–in feeling run-down, tired, sad and hopeless. I hypothesize that the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on adult mental health is mediated by disorder in the neighborhood because spatially concentrated poverty and single-parent families erode public order.” (Massey 1996; Wilson 1996)

Interestingly, I am of the opinion that rather than being the root, social-disorder is the after-effect of an even greater misdeed, greed. It is plain to see that various places in the world are in a complete disorder, therefore there should be no question as to why global relations are in this current state-of-flux. Now in varying parts of the world, what once was a reliable and predictable order is now unreliable and a volatile disorder. This disorder is outlined best by a citation from a Catherine E. Ross’s article that claims,

“Order is a state of peace, safety, and observance of the law; social control is an act of maintaining this order. Neighborhood order and disorder are indicated by visible cues that residents perceive. Neighborhoods characterized by order are clean sand safe; houses, apartments, and other buildings are well-maintained; and residents are respectful of one another and each other’ property.” (C. Ross, Jun., 2000).

I have concluded from my readings, discussions and experiences with my own children that a healthy family will naturally support the satisfaction of the first of three of the basic needs of Maslow’s philosophy. When these needs are satisfied, it will allow for the expression of the fourth of Maslow’s needs, that is “Self-Esteem” which will be the primary motivation toward the achievement, learning and also to preserve the species. If only a select few are able to develop a healthy “Self-Esteem” and achievements, a great division is created between those who have achieved and those who have not.

Those who have achieved will succeed due to the momentum of their efforts while those who have not achieved will run their selves into the grave trying to obtain the basics of life: food, clothing and shelter. If this is the case the ideal of a healthy human family cannot be obtained creating the conditions for a justified revolution.