Sarah Palin an example of a self-actualized person?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past several years you’ve probably heard the name Sarah Palin. Palin burst onto the national scene and into our national consciousness as John McCain’s choice as a running mate in his bid for office of the president in the 2010 Presidential election. Almost immediately people seemed to either like her or dislike her, with few expression of a neutral opinion about this polarizing figure.
During the 2010 Presidential election pundits, commentators, reporters, opinion makers, actors, pretty much everyone under the sun had an opinion on or about Palin. The more vociferous or negative opinions were sought out and giving leave to voice these opinions on any network or print media outlet that would have them. The same was done for those who held a positive viewpoint, but their opinions and voice seemed drowned out by the negative cacophony being broadcasted.
One would have thought that with President Obama’s election victory “Palin-haters” would have moved on to other “tastier” targets, but that was not the case. Nearly a day doesn’t go by that Palin’s name isn’t mentioned in print or over the airwaves. Negativity, which seems to have reached a crescendo this summer when Palin launched her “One Nation Tour” and with the subsequent release of more than 24,000 pages of her emails during her time as Governor of Alaska.
As I sat, read, and listen to the pundits chatter about Palin, insulting her intelligence, knowledge and even her child-rearing techniques I began to ponder where the roots of this almost pathological hatred emanated from? As a student of sociology it struck me that so much of the anger seemed – well visceral. People that I asked to explain the rationale for such a dislike often seemed at a loss for a substantial rationalization for their dislike of Palin, instead choosing to fall back on such reasons as she has no real world experience, she went to multiple colleges, and one of my favorites “she was a beauty pageant contestant after all” and so forth. But these were but shallow excuses used to describe a “je ne c’est quoi”. However, I think I may have finally begun to put my finger, sort of to speak, on the real issue why so many feel this undefined and unreasonable hate or love for Sarah Palin. In short, I think she evokes such passion and dispassion because Sarah Palin has reached the pinnacle of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and has become what so many of us hope to but rarely attain – becoming fully self-actualized.
Maslow described self-actualization as "what a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization…It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." He went on to identify what he believed to be some key characteristics of the self-actualized individual. They are:
- Acceptance and Realism: Self-actualized people have realistic perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them.
- Problem-centering: Self-actualized individuals are concerned with solving problems outside of themselves, including helping others and finding solutions to problems in the external world. These people are often motivated by a sense of personal responsibility and ethics.
- Spontaneity: Self-actualized people are spontaneous in their internal thoughts and outward behavior. While they can conform to rules and social expectations, they also tend to be open and unconventional.
- Autonomy and Solitude: Another characteristics of self-actualized people is the need for independence and privacy. While they enjoy the company of others, these individuals need time to focus on developing their own individual potential.
- Continued Freshness of Appreciation: Self-actualized people tend to view the world with a continual sense of appreciation, wonder and awe. Even simple experiences continue to be a source of inspiration and pleasure.
- Peak Experiences: Individuals who are self-actualized often have what Maslow termed peak experiences, or moments of intense joy, wonder, awe and ecstasy. After these experiences, people feel inspired, strengthened, renewed or transformed.
I think that it’s this perception that Palin is self-actualized and thus not subject to the capricious whims of public opinion that evokes such unrestrained anger from her detractors and passion from her supporters. The public recognizes this self-actualization at an unconscious level and responds to it. Her supporters respond with unrestrained enthusiasm, while her detractors stew over how someone so plebeian can evoke such passion. Self-actualization is not conferred on an individual through the education as our wonderful country is filled with many well-educated individuals that have yet to attain self-actualization. Self-actualization is not the sole domain of the intelligent; one need not be a member of Mensa to be self-actualized. And as the saying goes money can’t buy you self-actualization either, because it shows no particular preference for rich or poor, beauty queen or not.
In an average person’s lifetime they may be lucky to encounter a handful of individuals that have reached the pinnacle of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, these self-actualized individuals indeed make an impact on our lives. One need only look at Palin to see what emotions and passions a fully self-actualized person can evoke in others. All the slings and arrows her detractors may throw at Palin will do little to disabuse her passions and goals because a self-actualized person doesn’t seek nor need approval from external forces. Hopefully, her more rabid detractors will simply be seen as individuals on some self-fueled vendetta, harpies screeching from their perches at a force they cannot possible comprehend because they’ve yet to attain full self-actualization themselves.
Proof that women are still held to a different standard then men, and N.O.W. stands silent on the subject!
You’ve got to give Governor Sarah Palin credit for putting up with some of the CRAP that has been coming from the media. Many in the media are engaging in behavior so disreputable that they might as well be labeled as the reprobates that they are behaving as these days.
Is it fair for the media and the public at large to ask questions about how Governor Palin has acquitted herself while in Public Office of course? Her votes, how she ran her campaigns, how she dealt with staff conflicts etc. are all fair games. By evaluating these actions we are provided a glimpse into how she may behave as a potential Vice-President. What is beyond the pale is the innuendos and rumor mongering that has taken over common sense and fair and balance journalism. Even the New York Times (a paper not known for it’s right-lean) was quick to jump into the rumor mongering game and then had to turn around an issue an apology for providing false (yes I’m sure that this shocks you that the editor of the New York Times failed to vet their information completely before going to print) information to the public about Gov. Palin being a member of a third political party prior to joining the Republican Party. Which is interesting since I thought we had a right to assemble in this country and folks were allowed to change political party affiliation as they see fit. Of course if Gov. Palin had run and been elected to her office as this third party’s candidate and then turned around and changed her party, let’s say like that guy from Vermont did then maybe one could argue misleading the public, but even that would have been a minor “bump”; but this in and of itself would probably not be news worthy except it seemed to involve the most scurrilous class of people A Republican and a woman at that! At issue here is that the same media that seems so fascinated with Gov. Palin, who’s only the VP pick while Sen. Obama, who’s the Presidential Nominee, seems to get a free pass at the same level of scrutiny. While she’s been both a mayor (albeit of a small town) and then a Governor she has also been a commissioner of one of Alaska’s more significant commission and let’s not forget a member of the PTA a training ground for many women who eventually enter politics. Senator Obama may have racked up a few more years in elected office, but I don’t put much stock in the time he’s spent in the US Senate since most of that time has been spent campaigning for the office of President. Of course there were the years spent in the Illinois State House where most of the time he was busy taking the ever critical position of voting “present” nearly 100 times which really underwhelms this person. When the rubber hits the road I think I would prefer a Governor who had the added experience of mayor (no matter how small or big the town) who had been trained by the good old folks at the PTA – because that group knows how to prepare community activists, over a smooth talking, prefer to vote present rather then aye or nay because it may come back to haunt me politico. And the next time they decry Gov. Palin on her supposed lack of experience in case, God forbid, something happened to McCain remember President Harry S. Truman. “During his few weeks as Vice President, he scarcely saw President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President.” He seemed to do alright and is remembered as one of our greats.
But what has me blogging today are not rumors such as those above, but instead the out right dismal failure of the self-appointed representatives and spokes groups of women’s rights. And the greatest offender is the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.). N.O.W. an organization according to its own public relations has approximately 500,000 supporting members (not women, but members) has decided to vilify Palin on their website, and has made no pubic statement (at least to my knowledge) about the double-standard being used to attack Palin versus let’s say their “women” candidates Obama and Biden (such shining examples of feminism that I’m sure every American woman would want their daughters to aspire to be just like them). Granted I didn’t expect N.O.W. to endorse Palin though that might have been nice since its not every day that a woman makes it on to a Vice-Presidential ticket of a major party, just ask Senator Clinton; but they could have acknowledged her achievement. But since N.O.W. couldn’t -- so it didn’t and now everything representatives of N.O.W. have advocated such as whether or not a woman has children, is married, how she looks etc., should never count has been made to count because N.O.W.’s hatred of women who do not cleave to their “feminist” platform has caused them to remain silent. So next time when N.O.W. comes knocking at your door for money to support them because “without them” women would be sent back to the 1950’s or further remember their silence on the invectives being used to tear down Gov. Palin for simply being what real women right’s advocates have always fought for which simply put is to be able to be comfortable in their own skins and to dream big. You may disagree with some or all or Gov. Palin’s politics, but that doesn’t mean we can’t applaud her for her accomplishments. But, N.O.W. should be ashamed for putting their politics before the “women” that their organization purports to empower. Maybe this moose hunting, hockey playing, mother of five is too much woman for them.
McCain announces Gov. Sarah Palin as his VP pick and Obama shows that when the rubber hits the road he’s still a chauvinist!
In case you missed it Senator John McCain announced his pick for a running mate, and for many it was quite a surprise – the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. For many, including myself, the announcement was a surprise. My daughters and I watched and listened as Governor Palin spoke to a standing room only crowd in the Nutter Center in Dayton, OH. Her demeanor, presence and words were exciting and gives this voter hope and interest in this year’s election.
It was also during her speech that the Obama campaign chose to release an official announcement about McCain’s VP pick. Considering Obama proclaims that he is the candidate of change, that he's a different kind of politician, etc., etc., etc. His campaign chose to issue a press release that denigrated not only her as a person, and gave a back-handed slap to anyone who comes from or lives in a “small” town. His announcement could have begun by recognizing the she is the Governor, but instead chose to begin with this official statement:
“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same,” said spokesman Bill Burton.
This statement is not that a of surrogate and thus providing Obama the opportunity as he has done so many times in the past to pretend that such a comment is not endorsed by him, this statement is from his spokesperson so we can only conclude that it is representative of his true feelings for middle-Americans and I would go so far as to say for women also – and that not only is he an elitist (because only an elitist would look down his nose at a former mayor of a town of 9,000) but he’s also a chauvinist.
If Obama was indeed the candidate of change that he professes to be he should have congratulated Governor Palin on being not only chosen as McCain's running mate but also her historic role as being the first women to be selected as the running mate on a Republican ticket. But, as happens so frequently with someone who is acting a role versus living a role we can catch snatches of his true self. From his comments about “angry people clinging to their bibles and guns”, that if he were President he would require people staying in the Lincoln Bedroom to read and not watch TV, these are all comments of elitism.
Am I excited about this choice, yes! Is she perhaps a little light on so-called “national” experience possibly but no less than Obama, and as the governor of Alaska and a former mayor she has quite a bit more experience serving in a executive and a leader of disparate groups. And she has shown extreme capabilities to adapt and she appears to be a quick learner. She cleared and cleaned “the house” in Alaska and hopefully will do the same if McCain/Palin are elected. Whereas Obama has little experience outside as that of a State Legislator since his time in Congress has been spent more on his bid for the nomination of his party instead of serving the interest of the constituents of his state. I think that McCain made a very unexpected choice, but one that does jive with his often maverick reputation. Today our 2008 election is to not only going to interesting, but historic.