Chasers vs Maslow

[Bill Doms]

Not sure why I thought of this but in light of all the recent squabbles/resignations/redefinitions which are occurring in the chaser subculture, has anyone else stopped to compare what is going on to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? It's almost spooky how a chaser's career mirrors this sociology model.

Seems like chasers spend the majority of their careers in social and esteem needs level. Do you finally reach self-actualization when either you just don't care anymore? Or is it when you finally just chase for yourself and screw the opinions of "peers"?

 

[Dan Robinson]

I think I'm off to the side of that triangle, chasing somewhere

 

[Shane Adams]

For me it was with chasing like it's always been with everything in my life. I see something ahead of me that I want. I fight and struggle to get it, and once I do, I realize I don't really want (or need) it anymore. My big thing when I started was I wanted people to know how passionate I was, how much it meant to me. I had discovered this new passion that was the purpose of my life and I wanted to share that joy and enthusiasm with everyone I came in contact with. I guess I came across as whacko or that "y" word, because nobody took me seriously for years. I also think it bothered some seasoned chasers that here was this new guy, who was a complete dumbass when it came to the science, who was out there chasing and once in a while seeing tornadoes, and who wasn't going away. It bothered me for a long time, then one day I woke up and realized "you're a chaser, so what else matters?" My need for acceptance gradually disappeared as I realized I was becoming what I wanted the approval of...experienced chasers. I think it was partly that and partly just growing up and getting older, and getting over stuff like needing to be accepted.

It was during this same time frame that I also outgrew the antenna farm setup.

 

[Maggie Kahman]

wow....that brings me back to 9th grade health class. What is with all the arguing and bickering anyway? I missed that whole "ST vs. CDFG" thing, but i did read through the threads that had been split, and some of what was said sounds so much like highschool drama. When i came in to the storm chasing community via ST, it was like I had been introduced to a whole new world! Talk about an eye opener!

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Honestly I think Bill's onto something.

I don't claim to have any answers here, and I'm not sure about the applicability of this to a narrow sliver of life, but I think it could be said that once you're on that fifth level you've found enlightenment. That would mean that on a bust day, you're just as happy as a clam at finding some cool thing about how the day went.

Tim

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Do you finally reach self-actualization when either you just don't care anymore? Or is it when you finally just chase for yourself and screw the opinions of "peers"?

heh ... both.

Online communities are great for making people believe that to fit in they have to do this or that, or reach a certain level to obtain recognition and success. None of that really matters, though, and a person won't feel content with themselves until they just forget about the social stuff and get on with living.

Just enjoy the sky, and enjoy other people (because they are important - and interesting), and enjoy whatever aspect of chasing makes you happy. But don't get caught up in the whole social wheel. I've been there and it's no fun getting squashed underneath it every time it makes a turn.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

All that matters to me is money. I can buy a lot of sections if I had some of that.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Its all about me challenging my own forecasting skills...trying to remain patient as I nervously sit at my chase target hours before initiation...and then kick myself over and over upon hearing news of "action" miles down the dryline. Or running smack into the reality of my chase target producing within miles of my spot picked in the morning. Chasing's a real battle of will it happen (??) versus yes it will dumass...that's where you picked...sit tight !!

 

[Melissa Moon]

Bill I agree with you...I was actually going to write something in another thread about this (except not using Maslow but just talk about the need for belonging), but looks like you beat me to it.

 

[Stephen Levine]

Honestly I think Bill's onto something.

I don't claim to have any answers here, and I'm not sure about the applicability of this to a narrow sliver of life, but I think it could be said that once you're on that fifth level you've found enlightenment. That would mean that on a bust day, you're just as happy as a clam at finding some cool thing about how the day went.

Tim

I agree that this would represent ultimate self-actualization. And it is a great metaphor for all of life. How many of you fellow storm chasers would feel equal thrill at seeing a robust line storm or even just a shower and full sky double rainbow as the outcome of a dryline or even supercell storm chase, complete with hook echo that promised a possible tornado?

I have found that my best chases have occured when I have noted developing structure and thanked God for the opportunity to see this, remarking to myself: "if this is all I see, then this alone made the miles of driving worth it". Then anything else beyond that became sweet icing on the cake.

One of my passions is feeling the energy that comes from being in the middle of a kickbutt lightning storm. One day this September, I went after an exploding thunderhead, hoping to bag a great light show. Unfortunately, though it produced some pretty heavy downpours, there was no electricity. Initially the weight of disappointment weighed heavily on me, yet during the hunt, a two minute pause to capture the sun coming out from behind the exploding tower yeilded one of the very most spectacular sky shots I have ever taken. Lightning?, no; unexpected glimpse into heavenly beauty of another sort?, yes.

 

[Adam Lucio]

For me it was with chasing like it's always been with everything in my life. I see something ahead of me that I want. I fight and struggle to get it, and once I do, I realize I don't really want (or need) it anymore. My big thing when I started was I wanted people to know how passionate I was, how much it meant to me. I had discovered this new passion that was the purpose of my life and I wanted to share that joy and enthusiasm with everyone I came in contact with. I guess I came across as whacko or that "y" word, because nobody took me seriously for years. I also think it bothered some seasoned chasers that here was this new guy, who was a complete dumbass when it came to the science, who was out there chasing and once in a while seeing tornadoes, and who wasn't going away. It bothered me for a long time, then one day I woke up and realized "you're a chaser, so what else matters?" My need for acceptance gradually disappeared as I realized I was becoming what I wanted

Wow thats scary. I find myself feeling the exact same way.

For me chasing is my lifes passion. I would like to be eventually well known for it, and liked and respected by most but as Bill mentioned, Im starting to realize it doesnt really matter. Whatever a person thinks of me, theres always going to be someone who thinks the opposite. You cant win them all. Im just going to go out and chase, I hope to make allot of friends within the community, if it doesnt happen then oh well, I will find a way to reach my goals and become happy, because in the end were all about making ourselves happy, if Ive accomplished my dream, I dont care if you dont like me, Ive got plenty of people in my life that do and will be there to celebrate with me.

Plus I find myself being a man of extremes, I'm the nicest person in the world but if you piss me off or have something bad to say [outside of constructive criticism of course] I will go out of my way to annoy you even more until you finally make it your business to stay out of mine

Thats just my 2¢

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Thinking about this issue some more, I'm not sure that the hierarchy is accurate because it's made up of a pyramid of dependency on lower priorities. There are certainly a few chasers at the top who aren't dependent on a building block of respect and esteem from peers. They probably get that from family members and friends. So the Maslow hierarchy is probably just what it is: a blueprint for life in general with chasing only a sliver of that.

Also it seems to me that Maslow doesn't factor in the idea of Eastern-style enlightenment. Yeah, here's that word "Tao" from that other thread, but now I'm describing it literally, since one of the key things is that it's possible to exist at the top level of the pyramid without any need for any of the things at the lower levels. So the way I see it, at Level 5 you have Westernized "self actualization" but there's also a Level 6 not printed on the diagram where you have "enlightenment" and the pyramid is no longer propping you up. I'd imagine it's an rarity for anyone to get to Level 6, and it's certainly not the gurus running cults and operating multi-million dollar temples.

Tim

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I've never agreed with the idea that genuine self-esteem results from dependency on feedback and viewpoints of others. People who base self-esteem by feeding off of the opinions of others are destined for failure, since relationships can and usually are lost at some point. If self-esteem is actually constructed around integrity ... or doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do (even or especially when no one is watching), then a person's feelings of self-worth become constructed around principles that last when people around them fail.

This very much describes the way it is for many who are involved in chasing, because they will be challenged by their peers, and opinions of others change with every wind shift.

For these reasons, I'm going to say that self-actualization actually occurs for a person of integrity faster (and results in a more stable foundation) than a person who judges himself by the opinions of others.

 

[Chad Cowan]

Seems like chasers spend the majority of their careers in social and esteem needs level. Do you finally reach self-actualization when either you just don't care anymore? Or is it when you finally just chase for yourself and screw the opinions of "peers"?

The graphical representation of Maslow's hierarchy (the pyramid) can be deceiving in that it shows that one must build the base step by step and then go to the next level and follows this linear progression throughout one's life up to self-actualization. This is not the case. The bottom 4 levels are instinctive needs or deficiency needs which are ordered with the lowest being the most powerful. For example, not having a bed to sleep in (level 2) trumps not having any friends (level 3) and not having food (level 1) trumps your public perception (level 4).

From "A Theory of Human Motivation" Abraham Maslow (1943):

These basic goals are related to each other, being arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. This means that the most prepotent goal will monopolize consciousness and will tend of itself to organize the recruitment of the various capacities of the organism. The less prepotent needs are minimized, even forgotten or denied. But when a need is fairly well satisfied, the next prepotent ('higher') need emerges, in turn to dominate the conscious life and to serve as the center of organization of behavior, since gratified needs are not active motivators.

Self actualization is the only level in the second grouping, growth needs. In short, Maslow postulates that "even if all these (deficiency) needs are satisfied, we may still often (if not always) expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he is fitted for. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization."

Also it seems to me that Maslow doesn't factor in the idea of Eastern-style enlightenment. Yeah, here's that word "Tao" from that other thread, but now I'm describing it literally, since one of the key things is that it's possible to exist at the top level of the pyramid without any need for any of the things at the lower levels. So the way I see it, at Level 5 you have Westernized "self actualization" but there's also a Level 6 not printed on the diagram where you have "enlightenment" and the pyramid is no longer propping you up.

There have actually been revisions to the pyramid (up for debate if the revision was actually by Maslow) which adds a level, 'transcendence', above 'self actualization'. From wiki:

Maslow also proposed that people who have reached self-actualization will sometimes experience a state he referred to as "transcendence," in which they become aware of not only their own fullest potential, but the fullest potential of human beings at large. He described this transcendence and its characteristics in an essay in the posthumously published The Farther Reaches of Human Nature.

In the essay, he describes this experience as not always being transitory, but that certain individuals might have ready access to it, and spend more time in this state. He makes a point that these individuals experience not only ecstatic joy, but also profound "cosmic-sadness" (Maslow, 1971) at the ability of humans to foil chances of transcendence in their own lives and in the world at large.

So what relevance does all of this have to the storm chasing community? I have no clue. But this could offer some insight...

From "A Theory of Human Motivation" Abraham Maslow (1943):

The esteem needs (Level 4) -- All people in our society have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. By firmly based self-esteem, we mean that which is soundly based upon real capacity, achievement and respect from others. These needs may be classified into two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), recognition, attention, importance or appreciation...
Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world. But thwarting of these needs produces feelings of inferiority, of weakness and of helplessness. These feelings in turn give rise to either basic discouragement or else compensatory or neurotic trends. An appreciation of the necessity of basic self-confidence and an understanding of how helpless people are without it, can be easily gained from a study of severe traumatic neurosis.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Uh.... Wow. I just like to observe meteorology and meet people.

After all that, I think I need a burger or two....and maybe a nap.... I felt like I was back in college!