As a species we seem to hate ourselves. It's almost as if we are pre-programmed to be self-destructive. Even when faced with overwhelming information that is contrary to our beliefs, we still manage to barrel forward into harm and then cry out about how the world isn't fair, that we weren't warned. I often wonder how we've made it this far when literally every day you can find examples of people falling back on their base instincts to mistrust and hate things they don't understand, including others. It scares me to think that at this point we are the most enlightened than we've ever been in all of human history and we're still having debates about the very nature of our species. How can there still be people who believe that a person from a different race is less than someone else? How can there be men, who are so afraid of women doing anything, that they would threaten them with death? I'm not talking some developing nation that hasn't figured out electricity or clean drinking water. This is happening here in America. This is happening in my town. How can we still be so backwards in our thinking? The most frustrating part is that no amount of logic is going to change their minds because they don't want their minds changed. I've talked before about how perception shapes our reality. So if someone comes along and says or does something that upends that reality, we tend to react with hostility and even violence. I sometimes wonder if mankind just needs a different thing to focus on hating. It wouldn't exactly fix the fundamental problem we have, but it could potentially push off our eventual extinction at our own hands. Sorry alien travelers, but humans are a bit like determined toddlers, we need to be distracted and redirected otherwise we will put our hands on that hot oven burner, even though someone smarter than us keeps saying "No, that will hurt you". We need something or someone to focus our anxieties on. Someone to blame for our troubles. Because obviously it's not our fault.
I'm still trying to figure out how to explain to my daughter that our society will likely be working against her in ways I've never experienced. How do I tell her that even walking down the street means being careful because someone bigger than her may see her as an object rather than a person? Which is at the heart of the problem, we stop seeing each other as people. There are so many humans on the planet that we can't possibly know them all, therefor most of them are strangers and not people we can care about. I don't know if there were less of us if it would be any different. Maybe it is all a matter of scale. Numbers too large lose all meaning to most people. Picture a million people in one place at one time. The individuals stop being a person and just become part of the mass of people. If a million people die, it's hard to really comprehend what that is like. Instead think of everyone you know and love. All the people you like and interact with on a daily basis. All your Facebook friends, even the ones you don't really know why you're friends with. All of those people would still only be a fraction of a million people. Now imagine all those people just died. That is what's happening around the world. People, along with everyone they know, are dying on a regular basis and our brains can only register a number. Because if we were to try and truly empathize with that level of suffering, I think we would break. We read about disasters, accidents, and attacks with the number of people dead as a highlight of the story. Dam breaks killing 48 people. Shooter kills 12 people in a shopping mall. I can't imagine losing 12 people I know in a single event and yet when I look at the headline, I have to somehow disconnect the reality that those were people. They have families and stories that came to an abrupt end. Their lives end and the people left alive will potentially use their deaths to further promote their agenda or try to prove a point.
I've taken a break from writing because I really haven't anything to say. And in rereading this post, it feels like our world is rather bleak. Then I remember that we as a species are miracles. The fact that the universe aligned in such a way that we are able exist should be celebrated. It's taken for granted that we're here. Think about what has to happen just for you specifically to exist and continue living. Maybe the meaning of life is living. Maybe it's trying to find hope and joy among the sometimes overwhelming sense that the world and our own species doesn't care about you. Will we ever be enlightened enough to stop hating ourselves? It's possible. I think it just takes not giving in or giving up. Maybe it takes standing up and knowing that your purpose is to make the world better, not just for yourself, but for everyone around you. Maybe then we have a chance.
