When Are Humans Human?

It's infuriating to be judged and disagreed. It happens to me a lot of times. Those instances that you feel that you are being misunderstood, not given the chance to be heard first but then the other party is just spewing curses at you belittling you totally as a person because of what you are, those bigoted people, I hope they all die. Of course, I don't want people to die. But I know you get that feeling when it happens to you also.

Last time I checked in the mirror, I look human. I have human face, hands, feet, body, everything. Does that make me human. Yes. But not always. I mean, how about those who got their limbs amputated? Or those that were born with genetic conditions that made some parts of their bodies grow abnormally? Those won't make them less human.

We learn that we are part of the animal kingdom during our biology class. And what makes us different from all other animals is our level of consciousness and intelligence although some might disagree with it but you get the point, I suppose. These put us on top of Kingdom Animalia. We adapt, control, build and create better than all of them. Limits are broken and capabilities are increased exponentially. But in the early stages of men when knowledge were not as advanced as they are today, an observer from the present might see little difference between the animals and the earliest humans, whether it's Adam and Eve or your earliest homo specimens. But what truly separates us from the other living things is our capability to think and control our biological urges and instincts. 

 

Of course, we give in to both. Instincts and urges are naturally embedded in humans in order for our race to grow in numbers and to survive. Like how the amygdala triggers our instant response to danger, our brains have individual parts that are responsible with basic human urges and instincts. There are parts that tell us when we are hungry, thirsty, in pain or in pleasure, sexually excited, etc. And almost all animal brain functions just like that. That's why they eat when they are hungry, drink when they are thirsty, run or fight when they are in danger and copulate during their mating season. Similar as we may seem to them, what separates us from the rest is our capability to manage these urges.

A lion would kill its cub when it's angry. A monkey would steal the food of its fellow primate when it's hungry. A dog would copulate with its mother and would even hump another male dog or its master's legs when in heat. But we see these things as normal because they are animals.  

It happens though in humans often times. People killing other people, even their own families. People having relations with others they don't suppose to have to. People stealing others' properties. But unlike the animals, we are aware that we have conscience and the capability to do otherwise. We have our coinciding moral and natural beings on which we based the laws that we humans formulated. Acting on our urges is not wrong as long as it is done morally and ethically. Or else, you will be tagged as a rapist, a thief, an adulterer, a murderer. Or you could also be sick in the mind to do something willingly which is not normal, moral and natural. What makes humans human is what separates us from animals. It's our ability to control our feelings, instincts and urges and acting on them at the right place at the right time and with the right person most of the time.

 Elephants not being able to control the urge. And it usually kills the Rhino.

Just thinking about these things might make me wrong in the eyes of other people. That's normal and natural. But then, people are born differently. What I believe in will be different with what others do. What I want to do will not be the same as what others like. And that's what makes humanity exciting. We can't be equal because the truth is we are all born imperfect and what lacks of the other person is something you and I could offer which makes humanity great. But I'm still happy that we're humans since I know you could control yourself from punching me in the face when you disagree with me. And vice versa. Just kidding. I mean, I'm serious.

Forget Equality

Equality sounds good. But it's never possible. Each human being is different. You are in an advantage and disadvantage at the same time. Absolute equality is boring. If we are all equal then nobody will need anybody. Equality is lonely. 

What we truly need is respect and acceptance of our differences. In fact, we can't do anything else better than this. I am different. You are different. We are all unique. Accept it. Respect it. Witness it. Live it. Live with it. Don't kill for it. The world will be better.

I Will Never Treat You as an Equal

We always wanted to be treated equally. And we also hear many people calling for it nowadays. Equality, they say. But what does that mean? I’m not sure. Because before, I tried to treat everyone as an equal. When I discuss or argue with women, I treated them as an equal. When I talk with people above my age, again, I treated them as an equal. I did not disrespect them. I just talked with them as how I think they should treat me at that point.. Just a straight forward discussion with a person whom I view as my equal.  But after doing that, people called me ungentlemanly and disrespectful of the elders.

So this is how I understood what people truly like. Equal treatment is not really what we want. What we had always been looking for is a better treatment from others. Not equal but better. But do we get it? No. Not always at least. And we can’t get it unless we stop wanting it. Therefore, we must first give it. 

Rather than seeing others as our equal, we must treat each person we meet every day as someone more special and more important than us. No one or just very few will cry “inequality” or “discrimination” from our actions if we do so. That false sense of entitlement and pride is what primarily gives us that feeling of disappointment and mistreatment from others. But once we stop wanting to be treated better and start focusing on how we address other people, we’ll end up less disappointed. We’ll feel better about ourselves and other people. And when most of us do it, we’ll no longer need to ask to be treated better by others. They will just do it.