I, for one, am very suspicious of the contemporary emphasis on people’s needs.

This does not, of course, mean that meeting people’s basic needs is not important. On the contrary, it is paramount.

My emphasis is here is on the word ‘emphasis’. We should surely not be focusing on people’s needs to the exclusion (and at the expense) of duties and responsibilities. And when, most importantly of all, this leads to a neglect of those places in life where these obligations intersect with more ‘spiritual’ matters, as in our relation to nature and to our fellow human beings, or to any higher power that may or may not exist.

I am also wary of the way the definition of a ‘need’ is tending to shift, or rather expand, perhaps even become bloated.

This is fine where new medical treatments or communications technologies are concerned. Granny may well need a hip replacement now that these are readily available free of charge. All children probably do need access to the Internet these days if they are going to be given a fair chance of success in life, whatever that means.

I baulk however at situations where the word ‘need’ is extended to consumer goods and from there (or is it to there?) from whimsical desires.

No-one needs a new sofa, if the old one is a little worn out. No-one needs a new outfit, if the one they have is out of fashion this week. No-one needs to eat a large meal. No-one needs to watch a soccer match on TV. No-one needs to go out drinking with their mates at the weekend. No-one needs comfort, joy, or fulfillment. No one needs luxury.

These, I know, are harsh words.

To suggest otherwise, however, is not only to provide false comfort, to stoke up false hope and to fuel unrealistic expectations, but also to nurture a general sense of bitterness and resentment. When ‘want’ becomes ‘need,’ our society is likely to regress to a highly infantilized state indeed. And this, believe me, is no state of nature but a sorry state of decadence and decay.

When babies don’t get what they need, they cry.

If children throw a tantrum when they do not get what they want, we punish them.

When adults throw a tantrum if they do not get what they want…

Well, I very much hope we have not yet reached this stage. I fear, however, that we already may have…