Humans have always struggled with the concept of Humanity. It’s not a collective, or an abstract. Not a fanciful notion to be picked up and put down. It’s a moral code. A standard of behaviour. But like habits, good and bad, we always exercise what is easiest to practise. And because we all want our own little piece of this Earth, we’ve never managed to weave Humanity permanently into the webbing of life.
Humanity means we give a little to the other; to all others, to help each other survive. It’s what marks us apart from most other species on the planet (but not all).
The fact is, Humanity is a thing. A big thing! It’s omnipresent amongst human beings. An energetic current that flows below our crusty surface (a bit like planet Earth).
It’s our social conscience at work. We are generous, caring, and on occasion, totally self sacrificing; should the cause be right.
By subscribing just a little each month, we contribute. The dollar value is $ncalculable. A social conscience that runs like Daemons in the background and is the only thing that stops us descending into anarchy. It’s us, doing our bit to keep the premise of Humanity alive. Or buying our conscience, because we believe that’s all we can do . . . Still, I wonder what would happen if it stopped overnight? If we stopped donating through the Hinter, would there be a free-for-all; like a zombie apocalypse?
In the old days, warriors received armbands for heroic acts. We still give medals today. So I wonder what would happen if we, the human race, decided to give altruism a social platform
If we gave medals, badges, citations? Don’t we wear a poppy once a year (Most youngsters don’t really understand why).
How about we start with a class at school. Once a week, to show kids what an unselfish act can do. That altruism isn’t something to be feared, put off, or dismissed. To learn that giving, in whatever form, can help another; many others, and also themselves. I know, I hear you; that’s a job for the parents. Well, how’s that working out?
We already consider the elderly a plague (probably because it reminds us of what’s coming).
We’ve fucked up the planets’s eco-system by polluting the land, sea, and air (Out of sight = out of mind, right?)
And Global warming . . . Nah, just Fake News! (and a different Rant entirely).
But this is what our kids are facing. So they need to learn what we didn’t; to take responsibility. That it begins in very small ways. By helping each other.
It’s a Pyramid Scheme, without the cash. Let’s call it a behaviour model (without brainwashing anyone). And it needs to be taught to our young, in schools. To take pride in their Humanity, and not be afraid to let it show. Ask any teenage kid, how many times they’ve shared ‘melting ice-caps’ on their social media?
Ask them if they’d be willing to visit a lonely old person, just one evening, to show that they care.
I can see the look on their faces already.
I’d rather my kids had lessons in Humanity, than fucking Trigonometry. Texting skills may improve if school-time reading moved away from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare?
Maybe the problem is more systemic than social? Are kids too wary? Is it a vulnerability to expose their compassion too readily? Empathy only works both ways, right? Besides, can any of us really afford the cost? We have our own to care for. Family first, am I wrong? You wouldn’t have someone else’s child suckle from your teat (not without paying upfront). So we’re only doing what Evolution has taught us. What Nature deems necessary. And yet those Altruistic Daemons still work away below the surface. Why?
Is it a trust issue? Because our Humanity is the common thread that all Disruptors want to pick at and pull. Those of us who want others to believe that they are the epitome of who we want to be. That we can be no more. So we must be who they want us to be. I’m talking advertising, peer pressure . . . mum and dad (there are others).
So it’s a power thing, and the rest of us fill the vacuum. Survival of the fittest. It’s what makes us, not breaks us. But who’s really fit to decide, who survives, and why?
It’s the fundamental ideology at the core of the natural world. It’s what propels us forward, but also keeps us going back. We walk a fine-line, or perhaps it’s a big fat one, between acting like Humans (an upright ape who regularly needs to beat on a chest), and understanding how to proceed with our Humanity.
We know what Humanity is.
We shout about it often.
But we practise it so little, on the surface.
Our evolution propelled us towards the stars on the day we stood upright. But has been stalled ever since, why? Because we tend to learn with our eyes.
We have two each; one wide open with which to see. The other tight-shut; blind to corruption, prejudice, and anything outside our immediate-learning-hemisphere. It’s in all of us. Our neighbours, our friends, and all those we don’t know, or trust. So Humanity survives below the water. A common current that barely breaks surface, until a common cause initiates a tsunami.
It’s all too unpredictable, or is it?
One day we’ll have to stop acting like animals. Free ourselves of the tribal instinct that first brought us together. That has taken us sooo far. But is also causing us to stall. Being wary of others who do the same is a strategy that’s allowed Humans to weaponise their morality. To justify how we treat Nature, each other, and ourselves. Survival now depends on shedding ourselves of this protective coat, that keeps us looking inward, and allows us to be herded like sheep. Within the flock we don’t stand out. But hiding in the mass just makes us a bigger target. So, if Humanity must be defined by the mass. It follows that we must practise it as an individual.
A halo, not used as a weapon.
A sacrifice, not worn as a shield.
We stand on a knife’s edge of doing either, but too often settle for practising neither.
An empathic undercurrent flows through the human-race. But it’s under-nourished, underrated, and under-performed. It’s a practise that should be practised, as the norm. It should be taught to our children from a very early age. Or as a species, we’re likely to implode.
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