We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for. The rest is a day-to-day enjoyment of life. That's the explanation for your Father Divines; people naturally flock to anyone they can trust for the necessities of life... They are the backbone of a community--solid, trust-worthy, essential.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People generally prefer to avoid the burden of planning and seek assurance for their basic needs.
This quote from B. F. Skinner highlights the human tendency to avoid the complexity and responsibility of planning for the future. Instead, most individuals prioritize immediate enjoyment and seek the security of dependable resources, which emphasizes the importance of trust and stability in community life, as those who provide these necessities form the backbone of society.
Themes
PlanningResponsibilityTrustCommunityNecessities
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a community meeting to emphasize the importance of reliable resources.
More from B. F. Skinner
All quotes →Each of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
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No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been.
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I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
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The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
B. F. SkinnerRead
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