Human

Humankind is rotten through and through. We have a history of cruelty against each other. We destroy – not only the earth around us, but also our own bodies. And we do it knowingly, in most cases.

We are brainwashed to become humanists.

“humanist – of or pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man’s capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion; “the humanist belief in continuous emergent evolution”- Wendell Thomas”

Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? There’s even a so-called Christian Humanism for those who balk at the idea of religion being rejected. Except when the humanist is asked to define human dignity or if he is placed in a situation where he has to conclude that there is no fulfillment possible through reason. As for the scientific method… Excuse me while I snigger. Drug trials funded by the companies manufacturing the drugs?

We are educated to become cruel in the guise of being kind. Very few of us are able to see through the phrases which become devoid of meaning in the instant that they become personal. And it is only when someone near to us is affected that we begin to care enough to say: Enough!

We need instant gratification. We want to be associated with success and anything or anybody who does not correspond with the world’s idea of successful gets margnialized. We pity them, we say. Not taking into account that pity is a largely useless emotion. Unless it prompts us to do something useful for the person we claim to pity.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who is knowledgeable in the field of art history. Primitive people grow up without an awareness of the landscape, he says. The land is merely is source for survival. But it seems awareness is something that needs to be nurtured in all cases. He took art students in their first year out on field trips and many of them confessed that this was the first time in their lives that they’d been made aware of things like the formation of the clouds or the light on water. And most of these students were people who grew up in sophisticated homes.

The other day we drove past a settlement close to the Drakensberg’s Kamberg nature park. The Drakensberg is a World Heritage Site. It is amazingly beautiful. Yet, barely five kliometers from the gates there are people using the crystal clear streams as refuse dumps. Yes, they probably don’t have a refuse removal system. But what stops them from creating their own? Agreeing to dump refuse in a designated place for example. Are they oblivious to the damage they do? Does the outline of the mountains towering above them mean nothing to them? Is chaos the preferred state?

Apparently yes, no and yes. If my friend is correct, the people living there is as unaware of the beauty surrounding them as a colour blind person of colour.

So is doing damage knowingly worse than damage done through ignorance? Whose responsibility becomes damage done through ignorance?

The answer, in my opinion, is: Ours. We who do know better. The people to whom the clouds and the light on the water and the breathtaking scenery were pointed out. The people who should be educating other people. (Whether the education will make any difference, is another question altogether.)

As for the people doing damage knowingly…

May God help them.

I’m not really talking about art history or landscapes or pollution here, of course.