Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

millennial hope S 171
Maslow (1971) traced the development of a full-fl edged human
being from “infantile self-gratifi cation” through various stages,
culminating (for a very few) in transcendence from self. Unfortunately,
the theories and empirical data from psychological research
are too often applied to manipulate people, aiming to keep them
infantilized for commercial or political reasons. We need something
akin to the Hippocratic Oath to discipline the application
of psychological research, as well as clear standards to guide its use
for human development and growth, not exploitation.
In the immediate future we will need the help of psychologists
and other social scientists to develop and apply better indicators of
human well-being. In 1998, for example, the king of Bhutan stated
the objective of using “Gross National Happiness” instead of the
standard measure of gross domestic product (Layard, 2005, p. 77).
This sounds radical, but only refl ects what we already know in our
bones: that our well-being, both physical and emotional, grows
out of the depth of our connections to each other, to nature, and
to our ancestors, and from the faith that we can prevail through
the trials of an unknown future.
The evidence from psychology and history, unsurprisingly, tells
us that under duress human behavior ranges from very bad to
very good. So what makes the difference? One answer lies at the
level of cultural narrative—the stories and myths by which we
understand larger realities. In Neil Postman’s words, such “stories
are suffi ciently profound and complex to offer explanations of the
origins and future of a people; stories that construct ideals, prescribe
rules of conduct, specify sources of authority, and, in doing
all this, provide a sense of continuity and purpose” (Postman, 1999,
p. 101). Whatever the story, as Postman puts it, “human beings cannot
live without them. We are burdened with a kind of consciousness
that insists on our having a purpose” (p. 101). The narratives
that animated the Enlightenment, for example, included the idea
of a benign God, the possibility of rational inquiry, the intention
to use science to improve people’s lives, the faith in progress, the