May Your Grumbles All Be Meta-Grumbles!

Grumble. We all do it. We grumble about things. Mostly we grumble about what we do not like, what isn’t working well, what we don’t have, what we want, and what others have that we want. In fact, everybody all over the world in every culture grumbles. It’s an uniquely wonderful human trait.

“A unique human trait I can buy, but ‘wonderful?’ What’s so wonderful about grumbling?”

Before I give you the scoop on this, let me tell you about Maslow’s theory of the Grumbles. No, I’m not kidding. He actually developed a Theory of Grumbles and Meta-Grumbles. And no, I’m not exaggerating or using my own words, those are his words. The theory comes out of his work on the Needs Hierachy and identifies the fact that the level of our grumbles, what we dislike and complain about, reveals the motivation level at which we are living. First is the fact that the level of need at which we live.

“People can live at various levels in the motivation hierarchy, they can live a high life or a low life, they can live barely at the level of survival in the jungle, or they can live in an enlightened society with good fortune and with all the basic needs care of so they can live at a higher level and think about the nature of poetry or mathematics or that kind of thing.” (1971, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, p. 231)

Next is the level of need correspond with the level at which we grumble.

“Everything implies strong that human beings will always complain. Never expect a cessation of complaints. Expect complaints will get to the higher complaints. . . . To complain about rose gardens means that your belly is full, have a good roof over your head, the furnace is working, you are not afraid of bubonic plague, assassination, etc. The complaints gone up the motivational level.”

When our complaints are at low level, we complain about the cold, or being wet, or endangered, or fatigue, or poor shelter, that kind of thing. This is the level of survival, of just getting by. When these needs are satisfied and we move up the levels, then content and nature of our complaints change. At the level of safety and security, our focus and what we grumble about has to do with the lack of safety, whether on the job, in the neighborhood, by the government, etc. At the level of our social needs for love and affection, we grumble about our friends, how much or little attention they give us.

At whatever level we live, the focus of our complaints and grumbles tell on us. They tell about the level of our motivational life, they gauge our need level, and they reveal the needs that mostly occupy our focus in life. The next higher need level is mostly at the level of esteem and so focus on questions of dignity and respect, about saving and losing face.

“If you ask a person what’s good about his place, he won’t think to tell you that his feet didn’t get wet because the floors were flooded, or that he is protected against lice and cockroaches in his office. He will take all of these for granted. He won’t put them down as pluses. Yet if you take any of these away, and you’ll hear a big howl.” Maslow on Management, 1998 (originally Eupsychian Management, 1965).

The reason for this is that everything habituates. Typically, we get used to every blessing and begin taking it for grant and assuming that we are now entitled to. With the gratification of any need, the next level need emerges and that, in turn, directs our attention to that need. And this is an unending process.

William Tageson noted that Maslow made this observation, “workers will never be satisfied, given the unending array of human needs.” Why? Because new higher needs emerge as lower ones are gratified. But one can gauge the health of an organization by attending to the quality of workers’ gripes, which Maslow classified as grumbles or meta-grumbles. (p. 233, Tageson, C. William. (1982). Humanistic Psychology: A synthesis. Homewood, IL: The Dorsey Press.

In his study of grumbles, Maslow highlighted a basic principle in human motivation and behavior as we climb the levels. The principle? There is a widespread tendency in us to under- value our already achieve need-gratifications, to de-value them and throw them away. And this, according to Maslow, is one of the largest and most devastating sources of human evil. Yet it is one that we could easily overcome. We only need to choose to do so.

By way of contrast, people who are self-actualizing in their development are relatively exempted from this profound source of human unhappiness. How is that? In a word, they are capable of gratitude. The blessedness of their blessings remains conscious. to them. They mindfully keep cultivating eyes of a fresh appreciation which they bring to their everyday life.

And at the same time, at the level of self-actualization, we also enter into the level of the meta- grumbles. Here we complain about higher things. Here we complain about the lack of justice. Here we complain about virtue not being rewarded sufficiently. We complain about villainy getting rewards (i.e., the failure of justice), that X or Y lacks sufficient meaningfulness.

In other words, as we find our lower needs gratified and we move up the levels, so does our complaints. Our complaints become meta-grumbles. We now see broader than just under our own nose, and we care about and want more for people, for mankind, for the development of this generation, the human race. Now at the height of life, even our complaints have gone meta!

So the more enlightened we are, the higher our complaints, the more our meta-complaints and meta-grumbles. Maslow said this is also true of a rich and highly developed marriage or relationships, or business and company. That the health and level of development of any human interpersonal relationship can be evaluated by the height of the meta-grumbles. So, are you complaining about low things or high things?

Now that you know what’s so wonderful about grumbling, especially if you can grumble at meta-levels, and use that energy to become a change-agent individually and culturally, then may you now learn how to manage your grumbles well, keep a freshness of appreciation about you, and so may all your grumbles be Meta-Grumbles!