Addendum

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Human Motivation

The three primary values of our species have sustained us for over 200,000 years, approximately. Together, these values provide for an interpretation of human motivation that is species-wide for all people of all races, cultures, ethnic groups, nations, and genders, in simple and complex societies, now and into the far distant future. All of life is defined by the decisions we make based on the innate values system of our species and the interpretations we give to them according to our personal preferences.

The UNsustainability of Organizations. It is important to appreciate that while these values have sustained our species for tens of thousands of years, they are not innate to organizations. The archeological detritus of the social history of humankind provides clear evidence that all empires, dynasties, kingdoms, and nations large and small have all failed to sustain themselves. 10  What will provide organizations with the capability of ongoing social sustainability to avoid their decline and collapse and that of their host societies is making decisions based on the same values that have sustained our species. Doing so will add sustainable value to the present and future circumstances of our personal lives, families, and the organizations of the society and nation we live in.

The Raphael unified theory of Human Motivation —

Together, these seven values provide us with a unified, values-based theory of human motivation. Eponymously, it becomes the Raphael Unified Theory of Human Motivation.

The closest reference to a values-based theory of human motivation that I could find in an extensive Internet search was An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values, by Shalom H. Schwartz 11. Schwartz lists ten values: self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power, security, conformity, tradition, benevolence, and universalism. There is no dispute with these values, as secondary or tertiary interpreted-values subordinate to the three primary values. They have supported great contributions to the sustainability of our species by many individuals. Schwarz’s theory was published after Dr. David L. Forbes’ paper, “Toward a Unified Model of Human Motivation,”12   that examined all major theories of human motivation, and not included.

A Unified Theory of Human Motivation. The unity of the primary and secondary value systems gives us a complete picture (pages 35 and 66) of human motivation and an accurate reflection of us as individuals — thinking and compassionate. The three primary values and the three secondary value-emotions bring us full circle to provide the basis for a unified theory of human motivation by engaging the analytical side of individual and social existence with the intuitive or heart-connected side of our existence.

We are motivated by our intellectual side to devise ways to improve our quality of life, whether that means discovering fire to heat our cave and cook our food or inventing the latest smart phone. We are also mightily motivated by what we feel from what most people call their “heart.” The secondary value-emotions give each of us the capability to improve the quality of our lives through our empathy, compassion, and “love” of humanity, both as givers to others and as receivers from others.

Further, these values give us the capability of improving the quality of our lives through our intra-personal relationship with our self; and inter- personal relationship with others. This is the point at which the unification of these two value systems becomes vastly important to motivate each of us to explore our innate potential and find meaning in our life, to confidently unlock our potential, and to aid others to unlock their own. The three secondary values connect us to others through our empathy to act in compassion to aid those in distress. In doing so, these values reflect that we are being fully human. Peace will never become possible until we become fully human in our intra- and inter-personal relationships.

These seven values have provided the motivating impetus to sustain our species for 8,000 generations, approximately, and characterize our species as being human, humane. In other terms, the three primary values give us an integrated system of moral justice; and the three secondary values give us an integrated system of humane justice. The three secondary Value-Emotions give us the criteria to live our lives humanely in grace, to protect and nurture our selves while we protect and nurture others.

Adapting to Changing Conditions. While the three primary values have sustained our species, the three secondary values give us the conscious capability to peacefully adapt to a world that is becoming more and more populated. The key words here are “conscious” and “adapt.” As a species we have unconsciously relied upon the three primary values to urge every person to yearn for a better quality of life, to grow into their potential, and to do so equally as anyone else. The three secondary values, however, are volitional, meaning that they come into operation unconsciously and consciously.

As our societies become more and more complex and populated, the more that we will need to more consciously invoke and implement the three secondary values that make us human — humane. Otherwise our developed societies will not survive, regardless of whether they are democratic or totalitarian.

It seems that many people today fear what the future will bring to their lives. For some, this awareness is much like an incessant alarm clock trying to awaken us to the opportunity now to create a far more secure future. For yet fewer, we are actively designing a future that is far more friendly and socially sustainable. And just a very few actually do see the tendrils of social evolution reaching out to individuals and groups to create the first stages of that friendly future.

The future for such prescient individuals begins here, today, with likeminded progressive people. When the primary value Equality invokes our empathy, we become aware of the equality of others that requires us to come to the conscious awareness (consciousness) to then act in compassion to aid others; or choose to ignore them. Which choicedecision-action is more human?

For societies, that consciousness of equality must become awakened so that individual citizens and all citizens collectively choose to activate their, compassion and “love” of humanity to help others adapt to living more closely together. If we choose, consciously or unconsciously, not to apply the three secondary values at a societal level, then the three primary values will operate on their own, and this will maintain the ongoing ethnic, religious, political, and national competition for their selfish existence, to the detriment of everyone. Conflicts are no longer regional, but global. The way through this is to consciously engage our intuitive minds individually and collectively to choose to live without conflict, in peace — the organic state of human existence.

Values, value-interpretations, hierarchies of need and social change —

Primary to understanding the necessity for the evolution of societies, democracies, politics, and economies is understanding the “original cause” of the social change that is everywhere around us. Causes of the incessant social, political, and economic changes that erupted in the 1800s and 1900s are the same causes that push social change today — our individual yearning for a better quality of life, to grow into the innate potential that we brought into life, and to equally enjoy an improving quality of life and growing into our innate potential as anyone else. Those values, today as then, are always waiting for opportunities to come into expression.

The motive power behind SOCIAL change. What we define as social change is the collective movement of vast numbers of people who are striving to satisfy their evolving personal interpretations of the values that have sustained our species. Those personally interpreted values provide the basis for an evolving hierarchy of needs as described by Dr. Abraham Maslow.

Abraham Maslow hiererchy of Needs  

Dr. Maslow stated that as basic human needs are fulfilled more evolved needs become apparent to form a hierarchy of needs. Our hierarchy of needs evolve as our interpretations of our innate values evolve — we are still using the same value system as our ancestors did tens of thousands of years ago, but we interpret them in new ways. Collectively, as individuals improve the quality of their life and grow into their innate potential as others do, they create social change through their “demand” for new avenues and new means to fulfill their evolving needs. Perceptive marketers strive to be in touch and in tune with the “demand” of the public to assess any changes in the market for the potential of new services and products.

While individual interpretations of the three primary values of social sustainability may vary wildly from one person to the next, vast numbers of people provide slow-moving, ongoing trends that stabilize the movement of a society over time. Social instability occurs when vast numbers of people sense that their ability to satisfy their needs is being threatened; and occurs rapidly and violently when they simultaneously sense that their ability is imminently threatened and there is no hope of preventing the threat.

”Everything is fine.” 13  It is not surprising that most people in mature democracies assume that “everything is fine.” “Everything is fine” is assumed in the almost invisible slow creep of social change by most people who are easily distracted by the immediate events in their personal lives. Yet in only five decades, the macro-scale of social change in the United States has been immense. Its only evidence is how uncomfortable citizens feel with “the way things are” in Washington, D.C., other national capitals, and in their state and provincial capitals. When large numbers of the public sense and wake up and see that everything is NOT FINE, then social, political, and economic panic can cause rapid, large scale disruptions.

The motive power behind POLITICAL change. As vast numbers of the public sense that their current political processes do not support an improving quality of life for them, and do not promote the individual to grow into their potential, or support them to do both, those vast numbers become less and less satisfied with the status quo. In a democracy, citizens are used to exercising their right of self-determination in all things that affect them, including their government. They yearn for a return to the quality relationship their great grandparents had with their elected and appointed public executives.

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The security of civilization itself 
still rests on the growing willingness 
of one generation 
to invest in the welfare 
of the next and future generations. 


10  Diamond, Jared 2005.  Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.  
   Viking, Penguin Group, New York

11 Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values.  Online Readings in 
Psychology and Culture, 2(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116  

12  Review of General Psychology © American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 15, No.2, 85-98 1089-
2680/11/$12.00  DOI; 10.1037/a0023483 
13  Bohm, David  2004  On Dialogue: 68.