Day Four Pt. 1

After having discussed personal motivations over the course of two days, we planned to proceed with using a similar methodology to discuss personal needs.

Participants: Paul Free, Janina Abels, Matthias Larisch, Bodhi Neiser

Method

The first step of writing down personal needs individually was taken care of in a timeframe of approx. 40 minutes. During this process we came up with the following equation:

needs + values = range of goals
goals / motivations = actions

The needs were collected on a big sheet again, clustered thematically and placed on a range starting at basic needs (things I need to function/survive) and going up to sophisticated needs (things that I want to achieve/that would be nice to have).

Using this new cluster of needs, we started to discuss the first group of similar needs in more detail, meaning that we collected ways to satisfy this need, followed by the implications, requirements and obstacles to every way in specific.

Cluster of personal needs

Most basic needs

(1st third, from top to bottom and from left to right)

• Physical closeness / sex
• Social interaction
• Access to food, water, warmth
• Protection from extreme temperatures
• Food and drinks
• Satisfying the feeling of hunger
• Sleep
• Sleep / rest
• Tranquility / space to be alone
• Fresh air
• Safety of my physical, mental and emotional integrity
• Health
• Protection from physical and emotional violence / peace

Intermediary needs

(2nd third, from top to bottom and from left to right)

• Successful communication / deep exchange of thoughts / mutual understanding → Recognition of my personality / loving and being loved
• Spending life in the company of people, who share similar values and goals
• Interaction / contact / love
• Structure / clarity / stability in thought and action
• Continuance - to not have to create the same thing over and over again
• Physical action
• Movement
• Freedom of personal movement and evolvement
• Purposeful work
• Use of time, that makes sense (pursue goals)
• Learning and experiencing new things
• Create inspiration
• Balance between work and play (contribute with my skills)
• Variety and constant advancement
• Being happy / being content / fulfillment
• Harmony
• Safety due to inner forces
• Fun / excitement

Most sophisticated needs

(3rd third, from top to bottom and from left to right)

• Goal-oriented and value-driven action
• Openness / honesty
• Criticism (because recognition distribution works by itself...)
• Collaboration
• Realization of ideas (together with other people)
• Mindfulness
• Clarity / confusion / creativity
• Freedom
• To ease suffering (of me and others)
• Safety from external forces
• Convenience → internet / electricity / comfyness / pleasure

Proceeding with a group of similar needs

The first group of similar needs we addressed was 'food'. Unfortunately nobody took a picture of what we wrote down in this context, so the specifics are lost. Nevertheless, This is a try to reconstruct the most important points from the memory:

Ways to satisfy the need for food:

• farming
• foodsharing
• dumpster diving
• 'eating' light
• buying
• stealing

We then started to talk about buying and stealing first - and that already took a long time. The main points of the discussion were the following:

• Buying food creates demand, which supports the current system.
• Stealing also does, because the stores calculate with some amount of theft.
• If you're not dependent on stealing, you shouldn't do it because the enforced security will make it more difficult for people actually knowing no other way of nourishing themselves.
• In the logic of the current system stealing is unfair and will result in people being angry with you, because you took 'what is theirs'. This will not create understanding.
• A big theft, that results in a public distribution, however, could be an effective form of direct action - one that brings you in conflict with the police, that is.
• Buying good food can support producers of good food - but always in the limits of the status quo.
• Foodsharing and dumpster diving are no ways of changing the system, they are only methods to make use of what is already there.
• Farming is the only future-proof way to go and should always be the long-term goal.
• 'Eating' light is something that some believe is possible if one trains and meditates enough, while others think of it as pure bullshit...

This was in-depth... and already took over an hour.

Struggle with the process

We came to realize shortly after starting, that this process would take ages and would include too many details, which don't need to be discussed at this point.

The new strategy proposed by Paul was to just state the possible ways to satisfy a need and then indicate our personal interest in the topic with a X, ? or ! mark right next to the keyword.

Sadly, this day motivation was low from the start in most of the participants and frustration surfaced quickly. In the end all of us had the feeling that we were not making good use of our time and that the process we came up with maybe didn't lead us to where we wanted to arrive - at least not soon enough. In this understanding the main time pressure was derived from an ongoing decline of motivation, rather than not being in the same place for long anymore. We all knew (more or less) that there was sense in the process(es) suggested, but without Laurina being there to push through the initial phase of doubt, as well as this being the 3rd or 4th day of wh-y-unity meetings already, we decided to stop here and completely revert the process to make the topics of interest more concrete and tangible and thus boost motivation.