The previous post talked about script payoffs being banal or tragic. Under the classification system shown here the loser life script is the tragic outcome and the banal outcome is the non winner and there is a third outcome that of the winner. So this system defines what is the healthy position. This classification system however raises some interesting moral and philosophical questions.
In almost every society the percentages of each life script type is:
Winner = 20%
Non winner = 60%
Loser = 20%
The non winner would never do this. The winner or the loser might. In some ways the line between winner and loser can be very thin.
The vast majority of people in a society are ‘worker bees’ or non winners. They live out a life that society expects and indeed society requires in order for it to survive. In this way it is only the winners who achieve what could be considered psychological health. And they can only achieve such a thing if the non winners stay as non winners and do their job of keeping a society going.
If all the non winners some how became winners then the society would collapse. Any society needs a large group of people to live out banal lives as these are the ones that form the back bone of any society. They never really achieve any self actualization or significant psychological fulfillment but their lives are tolerable.
The 20% of winners are the ones who achieve self actualization and significant psychological fulfillment but they can only do this if the non winners live the mediocre lives that a functioning society requires them to do. This does not seem all that fair but then who ever said life was fair! (There is another whole set of posts to be written on life being fair or not, and the psychological ramifications of that - but maybe at a later time).
Two will be non winners, one will be a loser and one will be a winner, but which ones?
Over time each of these four women will make a series of decisions such that their lives end up in one of the three ways. Most are unaware of this process and it will just seem natural and right for them to make such a series of decisions over such an extended period of time so they end up either a loser, non winner or winner.
Graffiti
The ratio of 20% Winners – 60% Non winners – 20% Losers is surprising. Perhaps I have a pessimistic outlook, but I’d guess the ratio to be more like 10% - 60% - 30% considering all the people in prisons and others who contribute nothing to society. It would be interesting to see what the ratio is for women versus men. In cultures where women are oppressed, it must be harder for a female to be a winner.
ReplyDeleteI have characteristics of all three script types, which I assume is typical for most people. How about somebody like Adolph Hitler? Regardless of the horrible things he was responsible for, do you think he was a winner until the end when he was defeated? Do outcomes of someone’s life influence their script?