Wednesday, September 24, 2008

True and False Needs

All true needs - such as food, drink and companionship - are satiable. Illegitimate wants - pride, envy, greed - are insatiable... Enough is never enough... That is the horror of the giant in John Bunyan and the wicked witch in C.S. Lewis who gave their victims food that causes greater hunger.
Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does that mean people have a genuine need for sex, if a certain level will satisfy their libido? Or Methodone - unlike smack, methodone doses don't make you need even more.

John said...

Good points. But if I'm being pedantic, I suppose it doesn't. All true needs can be satisfied. Many false needs can't.

I just thought it was an interesting thing to say - I didn't say it was a hard and fast rule.

Otepoti said...

Aren't all the appetites fallen in some degree?

I don't think you can make a useful distinction between true and false needs - all needs have been corrupted (says the person who struggles with overweight and has a desperate desire for coffee RIGHT NOW...)