What prices would you be willing to pay them?The benefit are the achievement of community, identity and stability, if you prize them as the...

This is a tough question, primarily because the concept of benefit is so vague. We say that "absence of war, poverty, disease and social unrest" are valuable because they give us benefit. But what is this benefit. What is it that we really want, and for which we are ready to strive for and pay a price. What is it that we seek in life. What is it that motivates.

A good answer to these questions can be found in Maslow's Theory of Need Hierarchy. As per these theory there are five different kinds of needs arranged in a hierarchical sequence, that motivate people to make efforts when these needs are met they derive pleasure and satisfaction. These needs identified by Maslow are

1. Physiological need: the need to meet the basic physiological requirements of the body like hunger, thirst, shelter, etc.


2. Security need: the need to protect what you have including your life and property.


3. Social needs: the need for association wit other people, the need for belonging to and feel a part of groups.


4. Ego Needs: the need to fell important. The need to feel that you are better than others.


5. Self actualization need: the need to achieve your potential, the need to be feel that you have done or achieved something Worthwhile.

The hierarchical nature of these needs means that a person will first try to achieve the most basic needs at the lower level, i.e. physiological need, not bothering about higher level needs. But when the lower level need is satisfied, a person will move towards achievement of the next higher level needs. Thus the most dominant need of person will shift along the hierarchy to higher level need till it reaches the highest level - the self actualization need.

Satisfaction of the self actualization need gives a person the highest possible level of pleasure and satisfaction. Such great is the pleasure derived from the satisfaction of this need that a person who has once developed a taste for self actualization does not care for any of the four lower level needs.

If we think about the people in BNW, we see that they are able to satisfy their lower four level needs in varying quantities, but when it comes to self actualization need they have no opportunity to satisfy it. On the contrary, people are discouraged from having tendencies to seek such satisfaction.

So this is the price one has to pay for what BNW has to offer - the chances of ever tasting that highest level of pleasure, the pleasure of self actualization.

Whether or not a person is willing to pay that price is a personal decision. But, most certainly, I am not willing to pay that price.