Need-response exists as a viable alternative to adversarial law and to divisive politics. Those law-centered approaches too quickly divide us into opposing camps. We will always fail, and those institutions will fail us, when opposing what each other inflexibly needs.
We can do more to relate to these underlying needs, and to support each other's efforts to resolve those needs. With need-response, we can now work together to solve problems by working together to resolve the underlying needs. One rewarding act of love at a time.
Needs Come First
Needs Come First
We don’t exist to serve authority; authority exists to serve our needs.
Every law and every authority exists in response to some need. Those needs emerged first as objective reality. You do not choose to be thirsty, for example, but objectively must replenish lost fluids in order to fully function. All norms and laws regarding water emerged as culturally shaped responses to it. Once your thirst is quenched, you need no authority to tell you how you can quench your thirst. Any authority of law is only as good as it results in resolved needs.
Laws Cannot Resolve Needs
Laws do not resolve needs; people do.
Laws are kept vague to apply to a wide range of situations; they rarely speak to specific needs. Laws are kept impersonal to avoid favoritism; they tend to alienate us from each other's personal needs. Laws are enforced adversarially; they easily provoke our hostility.
Laws Cannot Resolve Needs
Need-Response Incentivizes Cooperation
NR Incentivizes Cooperation
We cannot solve our specific problems from the level of generalizing that created them.
Instead of overgeneralizing law, NR gives you nuance. Instead of impersonal law, NR engages each other's personal needs. Instead of hostilities, NR mutually addresses each other's needs. Instead of sparking understandable anger and spreading more hate, NR nurtures more of each other's love.
Resolved Needs Improve Health
While no one sits above the law, no law sits above the needs they exist to serve.
As our needs receive due attention, we can then suffer less pain. Less anxiety, less depression, less addictive behaviors. The more our needs resolve, the more our wellness improves. We can then function better and reach more of our personal and shared potential. Laws can guide, but we must do the love.
Resolved Needs Improves Wellness
The Need-Response Process
The Need-Response Process
There is no good nor bad except for need.
Need-response takes you through a cyclic path of 1) announcing its intent, 2) assessing responsiveness to the identified needs, 3) auditing competency to legitimately impact such needs, and 4) avowing to more fully resolve the neglected needs. This can complement counseling and law enforcement, or compete with these institutions. Ready to try it?