190 • FLOWfriendships rarely happen by chance: one must cultivate them as assidu
ously as one must cultivate a job or a family.
The Wider Community
A person is part of a family or a friendship to the extent he invests
psychic energy in goals shared with other people. In the same way, one
can belong to larger interpersonal systems by subscribing to the aspira
tions of a community, an ethnic group, a political party, or a nation.
Some individuals, like the Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa, invest
all their psychic energy in what they construe to be the goals of humanity
as a whole.
In the ancient Greek usage, “politics” referred to whatever in
volved people in affairs that went beyond personal and family welfare.
In this broad sense, politics can be one of the most enjoyable and most
complex activities available to the individual, for the larger the social
arena one moves in, the greater the challenges it presents. A person can
deal with very intricate problems in solitude, and family and friends can
take up a lot of attention. But trying to optimize the goals of unrelated
individuals involves complexities an order of magnitude higher.
Unfortunately, many people who move in the public arena do not
act at very high levels of complexity. Politicians tend to seek power,
philanthropists fame, and would-be saints often seek to prove how
righteous they are. These goals are not so hard to achieve, provided one
invests enough energy in them. The greater challenge is not only to
benefit oneself, but to help others in the process. It is more difficult, but
much more fulfilling, for the politician to actually improve social condi
tions, for the philanthropist to help out the destitute, and for the saint
to provide a viable model of life to others.
If we consider only material consequences, we might regard selfish
politicians as canny because they try to achieve wealth and power for
themselves. But if we accept the fact that optimal experience is what
gives real value to life, then we must conclude that politicians who strive
to realize the common good are actually smarter, because they are taking
on the higher challenges, and thus have a better chance to experience
real enjoyment.
Any involvement in the public realm can be enjoyable, provided
one structures it according to the flow parameters. It does not matter
whether one starts to work with the Cub Scouts or with a group explor
ing the Great Books, or trying to preserve a clean environment, or
supporting the local union. What counts is to set a goal, to concentrate
one’s psychic energy, to pay attention to the feedback, and to make