The Other Hierarchy of Needs

I'm thinking about the *Other* "Hierarchy of Needs". 

There's this model that seems absolutely taken for granted by mental health professionals, that to have a healthy life every person should be addressing their individual needs first, then work and family needs, and after that the needs of their community (be it friends, church, or Waterbuffalo Brotherhood), and finally tend to the needs of Society, as in Figure 1.

Note-- if this sounds all good and self-evident, please consider this is how we started out with a model of government based on the idea that wealthy white males should be in charge of all the rest of us, because they were the only ones with enough leisure to.

Now, current reality is we are raised with this huge distinction between Tangible Needs and Intangible Needs (which have to fight to be recognized as needs at all), so the model most people are carrying around in their heads of what they "should" be doing looks more like Figure 2-- Put on your own air-mask first, then your child's air-mask, then do what you are paid to do... and then the other needs prioritized by proximity.

Except for the Ego-Saviors of Figure 3, whose idea of themselves is collapsed into what gives them the best inner boost-- the people so eager to prove themselves at work and to the world that they reflexively put family last.

Then there's the Martyr-Managers of Figure 4, who are constantly juggling and judging which particular need is greatest at the moment with everything infringing on everything else and getting sacrificed in turn.

The difficulty with all these models so far is, they are very based in privilege. They are all very rooted in taking for granted a world in which what is happening at the level of Society is not going to have a direct impact on whether you can walk down the street in safety. That's not actually true. To my understanding, when African-Americans speak of "getting woke", they are speaking of a moment of realization that their personal needs and family needs depend on successful social action. I think this is why so many people of color activists I'm hearing are so frustrated by the idea of "Resistance Fatigue", because the very phrase "Resistance Fatigue" suggests someone falling back into the status quo framework of their priorities after temporarily stretching themselves out to meet a current crisis... when the very first work that is required is to recalibrate the framework entirely to reflect the interrelatedness of all needs. (Figure 5)

These are first thoughts fumbled out with one hand. What do you think? How do you want to prioritize resources and responsibilities in your life?