My claim is: These are five general categories that every human being finds themselves wanting either conciously or subconciously. In many ways these words can be close synonyms for each other; such as order and perfection, power and control, and yet linguistically they branch off in many sub-catagories unique to themselves. Power for example might be taking land. You can also control that land, but the word control lends itself to saftey and security more so than power. Same goes for order and perfection, they are simliar in many ways but can also stand alone.
My contention is that every human being wants those terms listed. What I am asking for in your reply is for you to name another thing human beings want that does not fall into these five categories, but outside it, as its own category. Anything.
You might say human beings want love, but you must question yourself, does love fall under the category of control, say, the controlling over another’s emotions? See, it gets tricky.
Think of the 5 terms as the base for all wanting, the most general wants. Can you add another general want to this list?
I am not a bible thumper in any way, but my thoughts on the phrase God created man in his own image, along with my thoughts on infinity have caused me to create this thread.
What is the source of our wanting to return to the source?
I don’t know if I could add to the categories you listed but as Joker may have insinuated in another thread perhaps a reason for wanting to return to the source is having experienced all the highs and lows this world has to offer.
I’m not sure human beings really do want control. I think the most basic thing every human being wants is happiness. Provided he has food/water/shelter. happiness is simply striving for an ideal or a goal one deems worthy. Perhaps, this ‘growth’ in control. But then we also see a lot of instances where people are more than happy to give up control. This, as I’ve come to recently realize, is most visible in the mating ritual. The woman wants a man who takes control, ideally. There’s a reason there is such a thing as ‘the nice guy syndrome’, the guy who doesn’t take control. As for love, I think much of the feelings associated with love are in the absence of control. You can’t control loving someone else, and that’s quite probably part of what makes it so endearing; the absence of your control. Even in sexual play, many many women have fantasies of being softly raped. This is just a fantasy, but it signifies the loss of control. There’s plenty of sadists in the world, in all fields where it is applicable. I know some people who like the lack of control constant grievance gives them, for example, and are ‘addicted to sadness’ in a way.
So, I really don’t think control is something we can absolutely want or reject, it’s a very touchy concept.
yes i agree losing control can be exhilarating, but relief of regaining that control is usually present in the end–like drugs.
Order–I heard it said that art,whether it be fiction or music, is the only thing where humans can recognize order, for the most part.
Power–from wars since the dawn of life to dominating conversations to the point of being “right”
Perfection–from matching clothes colors to the New England patriots regular season, to game shows that rewards a long string of correct answers, we strive for this, whether its acheivable or not.
Control–we see birds take flight and we as humans do not rest until we fill the skies with our own brand of majestic lift off. Again, we strive for this, whether its achievable at all times or not.
Purpose–it seems infused in everything we do, from what we choose as a final career to our own questionable existence.
Someone mentioned wanting happiness. I only created this thread to say that happiness is inherent in the pursuit if these five general categories. Particulars are out there to want, but my assumption is based on those particulars falling under the select group of order, perfection, power, purpose and control.
Just looking for another category, if we can find one together in our debate.
I’ve also wondered why the idea of God is what it is. (Or the judeo-christian God anyway. I’m sure we could expand this to all manner of deities.) It would make sense that God is a concept for what we ourselves ultimately desire. The theme in many religions is to get closer to God or to be more like God and manifest his attributes (or even become a God (mormons)). Maybe God is like the ultimate alpha male we should aspire to. Also note the way believers say they don’t need anything but God, that they see God in everything, that God is working through them. This takes a whole new meaning when looked at like this.
hmm, maybe I should think of attributes of God to find a new category.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, Yorick. You see, i dont believe in a separate god from us, but lets just say God is separate, it seems we crave what a god is comprised of. Imagine that, we want to either return to the source or BE the source. No wonder this god would want to remain distant, as we would tear him apart if we had a chance to replace him and become our own gods. So crumble that tower of babble, God, if you must, but we are similar to the devil in being unsatisfied with our position. Again, i’m using bible stuff, out of context, and not a true believer, in that sense.
Anyway, I feel the creation of artifical intelligence and virtual worlds is our attempt to stomp out nature and assert ourselves as well . . .GOD.
Also note the way believers say they don’t need anything but God, that they see God in everything, that God is working through them. This takes a whole new meaning when looked at like this.