When people are young, they are taught the difference between needs and wants. What they fail to realize is that something that you say you need is just something that you want. The word “need” can only exist as a complement, or as something that is required in order to obtain what one wants. For example, a man would need to put gas in a car in order for it to drive. To many people, the word need holds more weight than the word want in this situation. This is where things get a bit complicated. Yet driving a car may require gas, what makes driving a car required? If you ask anyone to tell you something that he/she needs, you’ll probably get results like water, air, and food. If you ask them why they need water, air and food, they’ll say in order to live. If you then ask them why they need to live, they probably won’t have an answer. The fact is that they don’t need to live, thus they don’t need water, air, and food. Those are just things that they want to have in order to achieve something else that they want; vitality. The same goes for any situation. You only need something to have something else happen; but you don’t need that something else. You not needing that something else, which is required, means that you don’t need what that something else is required for. Basically, no one needs anything. They just want it. Also, if you have questions about someone’s actions (why am I writing this node?), the answer will always be because he/she ultimately wants or wanted to.
Some people might say that this isn’t true because they are used to being "near sighted" (as many people in social tend to be) and have a hard time zooming out and seeing things on a bigger scale. One would probably say something like, "I don't want to go to school, but I go because I have to." What this person doesn't realize is that he/she has 2 options: to go to school or to not go to school. This person may not want to do math or write essays, but if he/she doesn't go to school, the situation would be worse via parents, jobs, etc. Ultimately, this person has 2 options (to put up with a lot of things by not going to school or to put up with less things by going to school). Whether this person is in a lose-lose situation or not, he/she will still pick the most desired option (but keep in mind that he/she didn't need to pick that specific option).
THE FORMULA:
For any given situation, ask the question, "What do you need?". Recieve an answer a_1. Then ask, "Why do you need a_1?". Recieve the answer a_2. Then ask, "Well, why do you need a_2?". Things will then become obvious at this point. (If things are yet to become apparent, continue the process until you reach recieve the answer a_infinity. Then ask them why they need "a_infinity" and recieve the answer "a_infinity + 1")
Another thing that isn't understood about
needs is that in order for something to be needed, there can't be any
alternative solutions to the given problem. It only makes sense that if there is a different way of getting something done, the suggested way is not necessary. For example, if someone wanted to move over a speed of 20mph, what would seem to be a valid argument is "I need a car to travel at those speeds". If someone then offered that person a plane, a train or an
ATV, that would prove the initial argument untrue. Let me
explain why I'm bringing this up. People conceive different thoughts that suggest that "We need to
exist since we do". Responding to this, it is
true that we exist but the point is that don’t
need to exist since there's an alternative to existence (non-existence).
When people don’t realize things like this, they tend to do things that don’t make too much sense. For one, they impose their ideals on others because they still think of needs and wants as two separate things (needs holding the most weight). A perfect example of this is closed-mindedness…
This node isn’t suggesting or implying anything. It’s just something that I thought people would like to take a second to think about (a little bit of
brain candy if you will).