More To That
The Four Ancestral Wants
We’ll only overcome our differences if we understand the four desires we all share
The world is not how we want it to be, but that’s precisely what makes it so special. Much of what makes life interesting is the fact that our individual desires are often misaligned with the movement of the greater whole. What we want for our own lives is not what others want for theirs, despite the fact that the general character of these desires stem from the same species.
Everyone wants to be healthy, to (love and) be loved, to be free (through wealth or ideology), and to have a sense of purpose. These four things are the ancestral forebears in our family tree of desire, and every subsequent want is just a variant of these four predecessors.
The misalignment between what you want and what another person wants is not in what you both want, but how you will get it. Person A and Person B both want to take care of their families, and on any given evening, their dinner tables will look very similar:
