Opinion: Vaccination order robs people of needs

According to Wikipedia, “Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.”

Maslow's pyramid contains five levels and each level must be met or realized prior to advancing to the next level, in order to reach level five, “self-actualization.”

The levels, from the bottom up, are:

Physiological, which contains basic needs such as breathing, food, water, sleep and so on.

Safety, that covers security of body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health, and property.

Love/belonging, where relationships begin like love, friendship and extended family ties.

Esteem, that includes self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others.

Self-actualization, where we achieve advanced civilization with morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts.

These bottom two levels contain much of what psychologists refer to as the lizard-like portion of our brains and no outsider should tamper with another person's physiological and safety levels without careful contemplation of the law of unintended consequences.

Our current president has decided that all military personnel and federal employees must get vaccinated or they will lose their employment, thus removing them from the bottom levels of the triangle. Loss of employment in many cases results in loss of security, health and property.

Not content with employees the government controls directly, the president has decreed that all federal contractors should also take the shot or be fired.

To top it off when asked at the recent town hall meeting, “Should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be — stay at home or let go?”

The president said yes and yes.

In short order, the president has moved from employees he controls directly, to employees he controls peripherally, to employees he has no control over whatsoever and threatened them with job loss unless they comply with a mandate that is currently facing a multitude of lawsuits in a number of state and federal courts.

These lawsuits and the subsequent anarchy further exacerbating existing divisions in the country are the direct result of trying to cut off the bottom two levels of Maslow's pyramid.

Finally, has anyone asked the president, “Should people on government assistance be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be removed from that assistance?” Would the president answer, unhesitatingly, “Yes and yes?”

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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