Related Words, Beliefs, Background for Choice #47

Worldview Theme #24A:   Struggling with a Basic Need: Sustenance            Worldview Theme #24B: Creative Expression

for a summary read these 5 entries in order: sustenance, absolute poverty, homelessness, world’s hungry and extreme poor,
hunger-- types of

for a summary read these 5 entries in order: aesthetics and worldviews, art--definitions, conflict resolution and art education, addiction & creativity, ecological groundedness

absolute poverty -- when people struggle to meet their minimum subsistence needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, livelihood, etc.

aesthetics -- a branch of philosophy that deals with exploring the concept of beauty and with making judgments about it --something at the heart of the aesthetic appreciation and critical appraisal of artistic creations.

aesthetics and worldviews--different cultural traditions have different standards for evaluating artistic work and valuing the various uses (entertainment, self expression, expressing cultural ideals, etc) of art, music, and creative expression. See also above entry. 

assertive coping mechanisms--strategies that psychologically healthy individuals use to constructively deal with anxiety and stress. They include: 1) changing the environment or situation, 2) changing one's behavior, and 3) when 1) and 2) fail or are impossible, learning to mentally manage the stress and minimize its internal effects.

art--definitions -- one of those difficult to define terms, one whose definition depends on your point of view. Definitions of it can emphasize art as any of the following: expression, imitation, playful creativity, insight into reality including touching the divine (see epiphany,)  communicating feeling, and can link it to beauty, pleasure, empathy, and both idealizing common daily experience and escaping from it.  It can be defined to include a wide range of creative works used to portray images and express feelings, including drawing, painting, sculpture, music, dance, theater, literature, architecture, etc. See next entry. 

art--what artists say about it--"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edgar Degas "I shut my eyes in order to see. "  Paul Gauguin "Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist."   Edward Hopper "Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist." Rene' Magritte "I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music." Joan Miro "I don't believe in an art that is not born out of man's need to open his heart." Edvard Munch "Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?"  Pablo Picasso "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent."   Victor Hugo "To send light into the darkness of men's hearts —such is the duty of the artist." Robert Schumann

art and status -- from an evolutionary biology viewpoint art seems rather useless, and explanations for its widespread appeal and persistence lead to economic and psychology of status considerations. It has been charged that many collect art works -- not for their aesthetic merits -- to engage in conspicuous consumption or to bolster their claim to belonging to some elite class.

artist--a person engaged and skilled in some form of art or creative expression.

barter economy—this is based on people simply trading goods and services without the added complication of money. Since no money is involved government levied taxes are avoided.

basic human needs approach--a strategy which directs development assistance to the poorest people in an effort to meet their needs for food, clean water, shelter, clothing, health care and education.

cannibalism–eating human flesh, either as part of a ritual or attempt to survive extreme adversity.

conflict resolution and art education--Recognizing that both resolving conflict and artistic creation often involve coming to terms with certain emotions, many educators teach conflict resolution in conjunction with the arts.  Given that suffering often precedes both deeply felt art and coming to terms with past or ongoing conflict, such courses may attempt to promote healing and help build a peaceful environment.  Related aspects of this include helping build creative thinking abilities, expand perception-taking abilities, promote self expression, promote self reflection, encourage expression of emotions, encourage emotional risk taking through sharing, meet basic human needs, develop respect of self and others, develop empathy, and foster teamwork. (adapted from USA National Endowment for the Arts booklet)

creative thinking -- thinking that happens without words or logic, and can involve images, intuition, emotions, and bodily feelings.

development -- the process of improving the quality of human life, especially in poor countries. Besides targeting raising people’s standard of living, increasing their freedom (in terms of choices available to them) and creating conditions allowing for the growth of their self esteem are major development goals.

do it yourself approach--rather than pay certain professionals (carpenters, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, tax preparers, lawyers, etc.) self reliant people who wish to save money will do the work themselves.  Typically they begin by educating themselves as to the professional details of the task they face.    

dreams--a series of thoughts, images or feelings --particularly of anxiety or aggression--that one experiences during sleep. While dreams have a long history--the Bible provides accounts of  several seemingly prophetic ones--researchers are unsure as to how to explain them.  Various scientific explanations have been offered: that dreams allow the brain to consolidate memories, consider thoughts / memories / feelings  that would otherwise be repressed, aid creative thinking, anticipate future contingencies, etc. Vitalists postulate that dreams are one way spirits communicate. 

dry farming--agricultural practices dependent on rainfall since they proceed without irrigation.

ecological groundedness–a feeling of being intimately, confidently , enjoyably–sometimes even joyously–connected to the wild, natural community where one lives. See also peak experience. 

emotions -- another one of those difficult to define terms. Here are three definitions: 1) a catch all term for subjectively experienced states dominated by feelings; 2) the affective or feeling aspect of human consciousness; 3) from Steven Pinker: “...emotions are mechanisms that set the brain’s highest level goals.

empathy -- concisely it refers to “fellow feeling” , that is imagining that you are in the other person’s shoes and experiencing his or her feelings, struggles, etc.

epiphany or darshan--the Sanskrit term refers to an intense experience that provides a vision or awareness of the divine. For Hindus, such an epiphany may be experienced when viewing sacred art, in a temple, or in the presence of a revered holy person.

end of game strategy -- a strategy that can be adopted by a participant in either games or real life interactions with others in which belief that the game is about to end determines the strategy employed. Examples: 1) if you are certain you’ll never see a particular person again, you may decide that it’s okay to cheat that person out of something , and 2) if you are certain that Armageddon is fast approaching, you’ll have little incentive to care about the long-term environmental health of the planet.

famine--widespread lack of access to food that occurs when war, drought, flood, or other natural disaster disrupts the availability of food amongst people who are already chronically undernourished.

fatalism, poverty and responsibility -- There appears to be a link between the prevalence of belief in fatalism and living in poverty. It has been suggested that some poor people become resigned to their poverty and feel that no matter what they do, since they were destined to be poor, they can’t escape it. An important realization, that many who have worked with helping people get off welfare have had, is that escaping welfare / poverty begins with taking personal responsibility. This is consistent with believing people have free will and that confronting the issue of whether to take personal responsibility is unavoidable. On the other hand, a poor person who is fatalistic, when asked to take personal responsibility, might reply, “No one is ever free, so taking personal responsibility is meaningless”.

fear--a strong, primary emotion associated with unpleasant anticipation of danger and pain.  While in extreme cases its existence will accompanied by powerful physiological manifestations such as lots of hormone (cortisol, adrenalin, etc.)  production, it is always associated with anxiety and often with loss of courage (and the need to flee rather than fight.)       

figurative--based on figure of speech, metaphorical, symbolic

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)--a United Nations agency that works with developing countries in an effort to 1) raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, 2) improve production and distribution of food and agricultural products, and 3) promote rural development. One FAO program--The Special Programme for Food Security--seeks to cut the number of the world's hunger (food insecure) people (currently estimated to number 852 million) in half by 2015.

food, calories from– some facts:  The average adult needs 2000 calories per day on average to fully function and not lose weight.   In poor parts of the world many people face a challenge to get them. In contrast, in affluent countries, many worry about consuming too many calories, and many of these folks engage in dieting. In this regard eating one gram of carbohydrate or protein provides 4 calories, but eating one gram of  fat provides 9 calories. Based on these numbers dieters might follow this advice: “Minimize the amount of fat you eat, since you get over twice the number of calories from an equal weight of it versus either equal weights of carbohydrates or protein!”

food from plants, the basics: plants need sun, rain and carbon dioxide from the air; they give off oxygen.  The process is called photosynthesis: solar energy, water, and carbon dioxide are absorbed by plants and transformed into carbohydrates (sugar, starch).  This serves as a direct source of food for people—or indirectly when they eat animals, who fed on plants.  Plants grow best in soils rich in organic matter, moisture, and minerals—especially those containing nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Microorganisms in soil fix nitrogen from the air and make it available to plants. They also decompose organic matter, minerals and release nutrients.  Ideally when plants die, their remains return to the soil and enrich it. Human management of all of this (agriculture)-- if not done properly-- can lead to soil erosion / degradation. In the most severe cases several feet thick rich fertile soil built up naturally over thousands of years in places like the USA’s Midwest can be destroyed in decades.

foodie—a word  that seems to mean the same thing as gourmet—that is, someone who is passionate about food, with an enthusiastic and refined interest--although clearly these two terms come out of different cultural backgrounds!  While “foodie” is a term whose increasing use is perhaps unjustified—don’t tell that to those who use it—it seems surprising that it has generated hostility. Critics typically use “childish” in putting it down.

food preparation and processing--steps that are taken before a potential natural food source is actually consumed as food by human beings.  This can involve removing fibrous plant material or animal skin coverings / innards, washing, chopping, grinding, storing, cooking, and additional processing that can include chemical treatment or preserving.  Some health experts urge people to consume most of their food in as natural a state, with as little processing, as possible.

happiness and suffering -- Dostoevsky wrote, “Without suffering, happiness cannot be understood”. In equating Hell with “the suffering of being unable to love”, he again links these two concepts in an extreme sense, with love representing some extreme state of happiness, Hell a place of extreme suffering.

harm avoidance -- cautious anticipation of difficulty in certain situations results in people characterized by this to plan carefully, pessimistically worry, be shy, socially inhibited and sometimes avoid strangers. At times, such people lack energy to cope with situations that produce anxiety, so they passively retreat or hide from them altogether.

homelessness—a social condition characterized by lack of adequate housing and regular places to sleep, and dramatized by pictures of poor people in otherwise affluent western countries—with all their belongings in shopping carts--sleeping in public parks or under highway overpasses.  Causes of homelessness include poverty, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, etc.  Estimates put the number of homeless in the United States in the 150,000 to two million range, in Europe (before the war in Ukraine) at around three million, and in whole world at one hundred  million.  

hunger--an uneasy sensation, craving or urgent need for food (or specific nutrient) due to lack of it. Prolonged lack of food produces the weakened condition associated with being chronically hungry.

hunter-gatherer society--one in which people derive their sustenance from wild plants and animals, and often (seasonally or otherwise) move if necessary.  Before the domestication of these resources, beginning over 10,000 years ago, all humans lived in such societies.  

illiterate -- inability to read and write due to lack of education, either because of lack of opportunity or motivation, not because of physical or mental defects.

immigration issues -- Relatively high paying jobs in developed countries attract workers from less developed countries. So workers migrate -- both legally and illegally. In recent years, many of those who migrate legally are highly educated and skilled -- the very workers that poor countries can ill afford to lose. The great majority of these migrants move permanently and thus constitute a brain drain on the less developed countries. Illegal immigrants generally are not so skilled and tend to fit into jobs that natives find unattractive -- as agricultural laborers, construction workers, in food processing plants, as motel maids, groundskeepers, etc. They provide a huge source of labor -- a Pew Research survey put this pool of 8 million workers at 5% of the total U.S. workforce -- typically at the bottom of the wage scale. Despite their demonstrated role in western economies, many perceive these illegal workers as taking jobs away from poor, unskilled native workers. And many complain about the benefits illegal immigrants receive in the form of free local health care, education, social services, etc -- although the taxes paid by these workers adds up to a substantial amount (a recent U.S. survey put their annual social security payments at $13 billion, payments for which they receive no benefits!). Complicating the movement of people across international borders are security / terrorism concerns.  

impecunious--visibly poor, associated with the signs of poverty

indigenous people--in 2004 the United Nations provided the following definition: "Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system." By 2020, the World Bank estimated there were 476 million indigenous people worldwide in over 90 countries.

indigent--very poor, needy

insecurity -- lacking confidence and assuredness, feeling uncertain and unsure -- perhaps even unprotected and unsafe. Feelings of anxiety often accompany feelings of insecurity. 

labor union–an organization of workers whose purpose is to promote and advance its members’ interests with respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions.  The power of organized labor in America peaked in the mid 1950s when 31% of the work force belonged to either a craft or industrial labor union.  By 2019 it had declined in America such that only 10.3 % belonged to unions, although in Canada (30%) and some Western European countries it was relatively stronger.

love vs. hate–Collier describes love as having to do "with bringing together into a whole that which belongs together" and hate "with enforcing separation and difference, driving apart [what is] inherently whole." 

muses– inspirational goddesses of the arts, literature, science as has come down from Greek mythology—the word’s root is the same as that of the word museum.

needs, Maslow's hierarchy of--American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) ranked needs from most basic to highest as follows: 1) physiological: air, water, food, shelter, sleep, sex; 2) safety: security / not feeling threatened; 3) belongingness and love; 4) self esteem and esteem by others  5) growth needs: both cognitive and  esthetic leading to self actualization. Maslow stressed lower needs had to be satisfied first (e.g. a starving person isn't concerned with esthetics), and that higher needs are more uniquely human. The scheme can be represented using a pyramid.

needs vs. wants--the former are something that you have to have, the latter are something you would like to have.  If you haven't guessed, needs are more basic, things like air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, shelter, and other things-- including other people and non-material things they can provide, and other intangibles.  As an example of what might be in this last category are needs that involve feelings such as  "the need to feel valued".  How do you decide if something is really a need or merely a want?  One way is to ask yourself the question, "Can I survive without this?"   

orderly universe--the belief, which can be traced back to Greeks such as Thales in the sixth century BC, that there is an order and organization to the universe due to its functioning in accordance with a small number of natural laws--laws which can conceivably be uncovered and understood by humans. Such a notion is diametrically opposed by the belief that the universe is unorganized, transient chaos whose workings can never be comprehended.  Harvard historian of science Gerald Holton's term for the origin of belief in an orderly universe is "The Ionian Enchantment."

passion -- violent, intense, overpowering feeling

peak experience -- a term used by Maslow and of interest to him in connection with a person becoming self actualized. Peak experiences are times when an individual feels a profound sense of being alive, clear headed and fully functioning, connected with his or her surroundings, harmony, spontaneity, and joy. See also  epiphany. 

population and family planning--refers to efforts to limit the number of children in a family.  The goal of such planning is to insure that all children born 1) are truly wanted, and 2) can be adequately supported and raised to adulthood given the resources available. While implemented at the individual family level, policies can be formulated at the national government level. This has most notably occurred in China, where the "One Child Policy" was adopted in 1979 to address population growth concerns.  Family planning services typically focus on promoting and providing access to birth control devices (contraceptive pills, condoms, etc). Where those fail, counseling as to whether to use an abortion clinic's services may be provided.  More draconian options include forced sterilization--which has been used in the United States to prevent mentally deficient people from reproducing.  

pornography and restricting creative expression–pornography refers to anything that depicts erotic behavior in a way to cause sexual excitement. Many argue that pornography should be protected under laws guaranteeing free speech and creative expression. They rail against laws restricting it, characterizing what is being banned as either (at best) merely artistic expression or (at worse) merely a victimless crime.  Others argue that display of pornography should be restricted–in some cases banned entirely–because it is harmful to society in the following ways: 1) it leads to increases in sex crimes, 2) it is degrading to women, and 3) it perverts the normal sexual development of children. 

Postmodernism -- an intellectual and artistic movement based on the belief that the modern historical period, one built on reason, the reality of objective truth, and an attitude of hopeful progressivism with respect to the human condition, has passed. Postmodernism questions whether these ideals and others still have meaning.  Countering the belief, which dates from the 18th century Enlightenment period, that humans are capable of knowing everything, postmodernists argue that they really know nothing--arguing that the reality humans have constructed is a state of mind contingent upon particular cultural conditions, historical accidents, etc and lacking in objective existence.  They deny the existence of universal truth, promote the common good, tolerance, and a cultural relativism in which different societies' truths, beliefs, values and morals are equally good.  Some link postmodernist cynicism with the steadily increasing grip that media conglomerates and multinational led forces of globalization have on the world. 

privation--state of deprivation, lacking basic necessities

prostitution, forced--a form of sexual slavery in which someone is forced into working as a prostitute.  Poor women in developing countries are often required by extreme poverty to sell their bodies, or lured into the sex trade by false promises (sometimes of a good job in an affluent country) and are unable to escape.

refugee-- a person who has crossed national boundaries and fled his or her home, typically due to conflict,  disaster  or otherwise unsafe conditions, and is living elsewhere—often in refugee camps.  By 2020 the  number of such displaced people worldwide was greater than at any time since World War II—approaching 30 million.  

right brain/left brain–the two hemispheres of the brain are specialized for performing different functions.  Understanding verbal communication, speaking, reading and writing, along with analytical reasoning, abstract and critical thinking are left brain centered.  In contrast, the right brain is predominately at work during strenuous physical activity, non-verbal communications, dreams, and is called on for assessing spatial relationships, three dimensional vision, face / pattern recognition, and in making intuitive / wholistic leaps.  It has been hypothesized that whereas the left brain processes information sequentially, "bit by bit" in linear, ordered fashion, the right brain stores and retrieves whole patterns, in "all at once" fashion.  Some associate different types of consciousness with each hemisphere–the analytical left brain’s being one very much aware of the passage of time, the mystical right brain is "in the moment" and "lost in space."  Emotionally, the left brain seems connected with positive feelings like love; the right brain with negative feelings.  It is important to realize that the human brain is incredibly complex, and that the above picture of right brain / left brain is too simplistic.  Thus it has been argued that only heterosexual, right-handed males exhibit the type and degree of specialized brain hemisphere function described above.  In females, where the corpus callosum connection between the two hemispheres is typically thicker, signals travel more readily between the two halves of the brain and supposedly bring more "right brain" emotional responses!  

Romanticism-- a late 18th century  intellectual and artistic movement that loosened the grip of the so called Enlightenment period on western Europe. It was characterized by rebellion against various things--the rationalization / mechanization of nature, and social, political and aristocratic convention, in particular. Besides valuing rebellion, both in philosophy and art romanticism promoted the display of intense emotions, spontaneity, heroic vision, and viewing nature with a sense of sublime awe.

scarcity--a condition that exists when peoples' "wants" exceed the limited resources available to satisfy them.  The related need to decide how limited resources are allocated leads to rationing and a means for doing so.  Price is one such rationing device. People compete  for what is scarce, and in making choices incur opportunity costs. 

slash and burn--agriculture in which forest is cut and burned, ashes fertilize the soil, the ground is planted and crops produced for a few years, before declining fertility necessitates repeating the pattern elsewhere. 

spirituality–narrowly defined as the quality or state of being spiritual–which relates to matters pertaining to vital spirit or soul–or more broadly as: 1) "the process and result of nurturing one's soul and developing one's spiritual life" (David N. Elkins),  and       2) "one's spirituality is the range of one's emotional relationships to those questions that cannot be answered..."like  'What happens when you die?'"(Jaron Lanier).  Some confine their spirituality to the boundaries provided by traditional religion; others look else-where to meet spiritual needs. Some link spirituality to feeling connected to something bigger. 3) In recent years Project Worldview has begun promoting a new way of metaphorically looking at spirituality—as the domain at the intersection of what both our heads and our hearts tell us is fundamentally important.

subsistence economy -- the production in such an economy emphasizes the bare essentials (food, clothing, shelter, etc) needed for people to subsist .

sustenance -- in general the means of support, maintenance or subsistence needed to sustain something. In an economic sense, refers to bare essential goods and services (food, clothing, shelter, etc) needed to maintain people at a minimum level of functioning. See subsistence economy.  See also underdevelopment. 

sweatshops -- manufacturing operations (typically of garments, shoes, etc) in poor countries in which workers are paid very low wages, work long hours, and toil under very poor conditions (perhaps in unsafe environments, laboring without respect from management, being exploited, etc.) Critics charge that the low prices affluent Western consumers expect are made possible by the sweat and misery of the world's poor.

tacit knowledge–knowledge that is ineffable, that is can not be put into words, symbols or otherwise made into explicit know-ledge.  It is argued that you both know much more than you can describe, and that often you know but can’t identify how it is you know.  Tacit knowledge is intimately connected with personal experience of Reality, whereas explicit knowledge is one step removed from Reality.  It is argued that the attempted transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge (by putting one’s experience into words) can not only at times be difficult, fall far short , or be impossible, but can lead to falsification.  Such falsification results when an experienced "whole truth" becomes a pieced together collection of parts (words and symbols) and some-thing much different from the whole.  Mystical experience is firmly set in the realm of tacit knowledge  

thrifty (or frugal) orientation -- making do with less, saving money and resources by finding creative ways to solve practical problems and maintaining one’s current possessions, thereby improving their functional efficiency and extending their useful life.

transcendentalism -- a philosophy that asserts the importance of the realm beyond the reach of ordinary sensory perception above that of the observable material world.

tribe--a social group whose members are linked by family ties or common ancestors.  Often tribes consist of many smaller clans. Before the founding of nation states, human social structure was predominantly tribal.  Today some use the term to refer to any indigenous society.    

trickster, the--from the folklore and mythology of various diverse cultural traditions, the trickster is a spirit or figure who is typically linked with disorder, mischief, and chaos.  Ancient Europeans have linked the trickster with gods like Prometheus, Hermes, and Dionysus, while Native Americans have connected him with foxes, ravens, coyotes, etc. For this latter group tricksters were often clowns who made them laugh--something they deemed a prerequisite before they could properly commune with what they considered sacred.  In general, tricksters have been associated with bringing change--sometimes initially disruptive, painful and unwanted, but ultimately a positive cultural development.  Modern analysts of the civil rights movement in 20th century America have interpreted Rosa Parks' 1955 refusal to give up her seat at the front of the Montgomery bus as a trickster tale

underdevelopment --a socioeconomic situation in which people’s standard of living, freedom (in terms of choices available to them) self esteem and hope for the future is seriously and persistently depressed.

virtuoso--one with exceptional skill in any field but most often applied to art, music, performing arts

wage and wealth inequality --a gap in pay between the sexes or those of different ethnic groups exists in many parts of the world  For example, in the U.S., despite passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, which makes it illegal for employers to pay men more than women doing the same work, by the start of the 21st century, women made only 76% as much money as men.  The inequality is even worse when white and black income and wealth are considered. In 2020, USA black males on average earned only 51% of what white males were paid for the same work. And USA white family net wealth exceed that of  black families by 41 times!   

waste treatment--steps that are taken to make waste water or sewage safe to discharge back into the environment. It typically involves removing chemical contaminants and dangerous microorganisms. If sewage is involved, end products of this process can be both liquid effluent and sludge--which conceivably can be used as fertilizer. 

welfare assistance—government provided monetary or other assistance designed to provide an economic or social safety net for those disadvantaged members of society who are unable to support themselves.  Eligibility is determined by income below the poverty level and other “means tests.” Recipients are typically required to demonstrate that they are seeking employment or have enrolled in job training.

World Bank -- an international financial institution of over 180 member nations whose purpose is to promote development in poor countries by providing loans and technical assistance.  Beginning at the end of World War II as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), in 1960 it was expanded with the creation of the International Development Association (IDA). Today, the IBRD and the IDA together constitute the World Bank.

world’s hungry and extreme poor— The World Health Organization put the number of people worldwide in 2018 who did not have enough to eat at 820 million. World Bank estimates of those living on the equivalent of less than $1.90 per day put the number of such people worldwide in 2015 at 734 million, or roughly 10% of the human population. That number is down from 1.9 billion in 1990. However, with the coronavirus outbreak of 2020, the number  is expected to rise substantially