OUTGROWING DICTATORS

What’s happening in our world? Is Africa awakening and ready to move to the next level of their own development within the community of nations? Are people awakening to the next level of possibility in their own individual and communal needs and wants within Maslow’s hierarchy?

The recent protests against the governments in Tunisia, Egypt, now Libya, Bahrain, and into Iran, and so on suggests that perhaps, just perhaps, a tipping point has been reached in human consciousness and that people who have accepted dictators are ready to make a change—to move to the next level of transformation in themselves as a people and as a country. Wouldn’t that be great?

This year many of us have been watching government protesters in many countries. I’ve been watching the drama on CNN, BBC, Fox and other channels with excitement and apprehension. Excitement that change is in the air and in hope that people will be able to forge new and much more humane governments and move away from old limitations. Apprehension that where there is the energy for creation, there is at the same time energy for destruction. That just as it could herald the dawn of a new era in these countries, it could also herald times of civil war and massacre. And yes, the son of Gadhafi warned about that today, yet it sounded to me like more of “fear mongering” than anything else.

As I observed the protesters in Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain recently, I’ve been pleased with the growing hunger for freedom, for self-determination, and to take control of one’s own choices. I’ve been moved as I see the hunger in so many for a broader base of justice and equality, the hunger to move beyond being controlled by a dictator (benevolent or not, and usually not), and to the messy processes of democracy where people present their differences and work through their conflicts and create a win-win-win arrangement so that everyone in a society can win.

In terms of the Hierarchy of Needs, these motivations are at level 2— Safety and Security, Control and Stability. And of course, they can be activated and triggered by problems at Level 1 —Survival. When a “king” or dictator like Mubarak gets rich, billionaire rich, and the average person is receiving $2 USD a day, and that goes on for the 30 years of his reign, then something is terribly wrong. Yes, keeping people at the survival level does tend to keep them dependent, needy, and in a passive child-like state of looking up to the great Daddy who will take care of them.

The problem today, however, is the worldwide net. It is Facebook. The social media. The Soviets followed that formula and it succeeded (for many decades) and people thought that they were so lucky to have some bread and milk and cheese even though that had to stand in line for

hours for it. They felt so fortunate that their Government was taking care of them while the rest of the world was starving. But the truth could not be hid forever. Eventually people started finding out that the rest of the world was not starving, and that they did not need a Big Daddy who handed out milk, bread, and cheese.

Level 2 of our needs/wants is the level of having a sense of control in our lives— being able to be independent, to take care of ourselves, to not be so needy or dependent. And this generates some of the first hungers for freedom— freedom to think one’s one thoughts without the thought police arresting you for thinking against the Politically Correct Party line. Freedom to speak out one’s thoughts without fear of being harassed and accused of crimes against the state. Freedom to work, to develop one’s talents, to receive education, to create economic stability, etc.

The hunger and drive and want and need to be free in these ways is a basic human drive. It is inside all of us and no Government can ultimately suppress it, punish it, imprison it, or abolish it. Laws against these freedoms will not and cannot eliminate them. They will still be there, waiting for the moment— for the right time — to emerge and assert themselves. And I think that’s what we are seeing in Africa and in some of the Arab Countries — the basic human desire and passion for freedom.

It is our nature as human beings to move up through the levels of needs to the highest needs, the self-actualization needs. The lower needs (survival, safety and control, social needs of love and affection, and self needs of value and importance) are designed to create the foundation for the true human needs: meaningfulness, beauty, justice, contribution, knowledge, understanding, giving love, etc. It’s inevitable. That’s why no dictator, no matter how benevolent, is satisfying for long.

We have within us a desire to grow up, to be independent, to think for ourselves, to assert our own uniqueness, and to want to use our freedom to make the world a better world for all. True enough, everybody doesn’t move into this kind of self-actualization— it can certainly be dampened and weakened and distorted by many things. Yet it is what lies deepest within awaiting to be awakened, developed, and channeled. It is this drive that we in Neuro-Semantics most uniquely work with.

Here’s to the possibility of an awakening of Human Consciousness in Africa in 2011 and to their success in create more just and effective societies.