Inhumane Humane

Sometimes, it can be real saddening when reading or watching the news in the world or just around us each day. The cruelty, the violence, the lack of sympathy, the lack of conscience, or rather, inhumanity.

Its really ironic that the word inhumanity comes from the word human, because it is the human who is commiting such inhumane acts. If so, what is human then? I believe, it is not about being humane or inhumane, its about emotions and love. If everyone can see another person as though he/she is the son/daughter or father/mother or brother/sister or husband/wife or even the best friend of somebody else, just like the very person who is commiting the cruel act, he would realise too that his victim is very much as human and as fragile and as significant as he is.

No one is really less important than another person.

In reality, we are all the same. Just varying in skin colour, gender, language, body size, religion, culture, history and beliefs. The list goes on, but it should be clear that categories like race, country and social class are not inherent differences but differences that man himself has created. These have sadly caused greater delineation to the human species and resulted in the many wars and violence that we see in the world today.

We often criticize ancient societies for being uncivilized in the way that human sacrifice was practiced or for the cruelty of slavetrade. But, I'll have to say that human society simply hasn't changed much or evolved psychologically since then. For aren't we still as uncivilised as before? I'll have to apologize to Mr Darwin here.

Don't we all know about WWII and its atrocities? (which I have just commented on in the visual-journal) Don't we see the killings of hostages taking place in Iraq as though it were a daily ritual? Haven't we read about the recent illtreatment of detainees in Thailand suffocating to death because they were stacked as though they were sheets of paper? Didn't we also hear about how Huang Na died a very tragic death being cramped into a box less than half her body size?

How then dare we say that we are civilised?

Of course, I may say that I am, just as you yourself might. Because I was not part of all these. But then again, we are all responsible for how the world is because we all exist as part of a society. Truly, no man is an island. And no man should play God as well.

Well put by a Discovery Channel trailer I saw yesterday for a documentary on Flight 11 (the fateful flight which crashed into the 1st twin tower),

"The most terrifying weapon is not man-made, but man himself"