Primary Value.
So what is this primary value we all desire? And whose idea was this in the first place?
Ernest Becker in his Pulitzer-prize- winning book "The Denial of Death" presents the idea that death, as the final destiny of man stands in such contradiction to the hint that we have a spiritual side that the terror of it all pushes us into heroic behavior where we persistently challenge contemporary physical, moral and ethical boundaries.
We so desperately need to justify ourselves as an object of primary value in the universe. To stand out, to be recognized, be a hero, make a contribution, to display that we count more than anything or anyone else.
Well this may explain the boss but what about the guy in shipping?
Point is if Becker is right, then to include all individuals in the system we may have to redefine the roles of every one in it, in which case the purpose of the system has just made a paradigm shift.
The difficulty for the boss is that his/her primary need is as valid as the guy in shipping. The question is how can our respective needs to be heroic fit into the new paradigm?
Maybe Victor Frankel's remark in "Man's Search for Meaning" points the way when he said "everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it."
By redefining an individual’s specific role, economically, culturally and ethically, and his/her unique challenge and fundamental importance in the system, each individual might seize it as an opportunity for self fulfillment.
I think we may be moving into another universe here.
JFC June 2010
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