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Losing Our Humanity
Although we are technically animals, there are many attributes that separate us, elevate us above the animal kingdom. We are reasoning creatures; we have the ability to empathize with others; we recognize cruelty when we see it. But over the last several years we have watched one characteristic become resented, even ridiculed and degraded because it doesn’t suit the preferences of others.
We are losing our humanity.
What do I mean by “humanity”? It is our capacity to be compassionate, sympathetic, generous. That means that most of us have degrees of this ability, depending on our personalities, our ability to relate to and care about others.
But it is only a capacity. If we don’t nurture it, it becomes weak and unavailable to us.
The opportunity to practice our humanity shows up every day of our lives. When we relate to a friend who is sick and bring him or her our favorite chicken soup; when we know someone who has lost a job, and we offer encouragement and maybe even suggestions to help the job search along; when we let people move in front of us at the grocery store line because they look beleaguered by crying children; when we simply sit and listen to the sorrows of another. Those are ways we strengthen our “humanity muscles.”
Experiencing our humanity is even more important when we are called to act in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations. When we dislike hospitals but go to visit a friend; when we are frightened by the specter of death of someone but spend time with him; when we attend a memorial service of someone we have lost; those moments are the ones that stretch us, that help us demonstrate our humanity.
Those are the moments that make us most human.
Unfortunately, our humanity is an endangered quality. For many, it isn’t relevant in their lives or is a low priority. Instead, as in the case of many on the Left, it has been replaced by the desire and demonstration of power, at any cost. Humanity, however, demands much more of us than power. In fact, it can only survive when a person is committed to two attributes: compassion and discipline.
Compassion is the emotion that connects us to the world, to our friends and families and neighbors. We can identify with the sufferings and struggles of others. Compassion, in some cases, leads to empathizing, believing that we know, at some level, what another person is going through. Compassion can also be a global experience; whether we are deeply saddened by genocide in Rwanda, the suffering of the North Korean people, or the killing of the Uighurs in China, we can’t ignore that there is misery worldwide.
In spite of the power of compassion, however, we must practice discipline in the way we respond to it. We cannot save the world. We know at many levels, as individuals, that to live productive lives we must measure the resources we spend. Even as Americans, we must weigh the use of our time, our money, even our emotional investment to practice compassion.
But the practice of both discipline and compassion must continually be evaluated. With discipline, we can have difficulty deciding the right amount to demonstrate: what is too little, how much is too much? Compassion has the same consequences: if we invest too much emotionally in any one situation, we deprive ourselves and others in our lives of our engagement.
So, it is the melding of discipline and compassion, tuned to every situation, that allows us to reveal our humanity.
* * * * *
Unless a person has either grown up with these attributes and practiced them, or resolved at some point in his or her life that humanity is crucial to the lives of human beings, the appreciation of humanity will be at risk. You may say that humanity has been endangered since the beginning of time. I agree.
But never to the degree that we are seeing now.
The Left has driven the understanding of humanity from the common square at a level not seen in modern times:
- White children are being told by their schools that they are evil, part of the white supremacist and systemic racist system, and there is no escape.
- Parents are shown contempt by teachers and administrators for trying to protect their children.
- Citizens are being told that they must sacrifice their livelihood and wellbeing to support a radical climate agenda that cannot succeed.
- The government says we must treat illegal aliens with compassion, while they crowd them into inadequate facilities.
- Medical experts continue to spread fear and misinformation in order to intimidate the population with threats of further restrictions.
- Black people continue to be told that they are helpless and incapable of enabling themselves to pursue successful and rewarding lives.
- Our history has been distorted and smeared to propagate the belief that we live under an illegitimate government and we must be punished for our cooperation with it.
When the media, Left and radical legislators publicly united, we had to tolerate vicious insults, name-calling, and banishment; their lying and misinformation became commonplace. Gradually I believe the Left is turning us into less-than human beings. We are animals, not worthy of their consideration. Our ideas are toxic; our needs are irrelevant.
For now, we are being exiled from certain platforms. Eventually, they may decide we need to be removed from society, due to our hateful and destructive goals. We are dangerous. We are inconvenient. We are unnecessary.
* * * * *
I believe the Left is abandoning any façade of their belief in humanity. In spite of their call for compassion, they appear incapable of demonstrating it themselves. What happens when their humanity is relegated to the dust heap?
For the rest of us, we must find a way to maintain our own love of humanity.
In this atmosphere, I’m not sure how to do it. I do know that we must find that caring and compassionate place within ourselves that we can nurture when we are called to do so.
We must demonstrate that we are human beings who refuse to relinquish our commitment to humanity.
Published in Culture
“For I have singled him (Abraham) out, that he may do what is charitable and just.” (Genesis 18:19)
I think the answer’s here:
I also think that before one can love one’s neighbor in a healthy and affirming way, one has to love oneself. So I do believe that, WRT to that particular commandment, healthy love of self has to come first. Self-hatred usually projects in some form into hatred of others. That seems to be a fundamental tenet of Leftism, although I prefer to stay away from painting with such a broad brush (in that case, it’s hard, because I think it’s true). But I certainly know people on all sides of the political and social spectrum who hate themselves. and who only have to open their mouths for that fact to be evident to all.
Yes, I guess it’s because of what I’ve always known, that I was born a white American male, living in the richest and most powerful country on earth, with the glorious Bill of Rights and Rule of Law, that I took God’s grace for granted, and I never really understood or believed “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” I couldn’t see it, and didn’t want to explore it, so I couldn’t comprehend it.
But I’m seeing it now.
However God’s grace is abundant and eternal, and ever new.
Because the concept of morality has vanished.
When was the last time you heard someone use the word “immoral?”
We no longer have a moral code. “Everything is relative” is the mantra of our age. Teachers no longer instruct children that anything is either right or wrong. These words have lost all meaning.
Perhaps “amoral” best describes the direction in which the world appears to be headed.
I agree. Jesus says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is a given that we already love ourselves, no matter how imperfectly or misguidedly.
And elsewhere the Bible says says the same: “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” The Bible presumes in principle that people do naturally love themselves.
(One can argue that some people with the misery of certain personality disorders, who cut or burn themselves, do not love themselves; but even then, that they love themselves is still arguable. Either way, they still are focusing on themselves rather than God, or than being grateful for God for the life He has given them. And this acknowledgement changes things.)
Yes, I’ve read that many times, but I couldn’t visualize it, or understand the specifics of it.
I’ve read “No, I tell you, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
But I can’t see that either, except in references to nazi Germany, the East German Stasi, or the Hutus in Rwanda. But I can’t imagine that level of faithlessness in the United States.
Winston Churchill was criticized for his extremely respectful letter to the Japanese Ambassador to Britain in December 1941, when informing him that their countries were at war. Churchill’s response to critics was, “After all, when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”
I vaguely recall a letter Benjamin Franklin wrote yet never sent to a friend in England after the American Revolution had started. He concluded:
Oh, I hear the word “immoral” used plenty; against Conservatives and usually by “Reverends” such as Al Sharpton. Leftists usually don’t hesitate to twist “morality” for their own purposes.
It’s not “Do unto others before you do unto you.” We have at least equal billing, right?
It’s not compassion if you do something for another out of obligation or compulsion. If you don’t feed yourself, your energy to feed others runs out pretty quickly.
I don’t listen to Al, but I get your point.
The arguments presented above aren’t getting enough attention in this thread. Remember the left is claiming the mantle of compassion for many of the things they do, including their version of justice (they call it social justice without nailing down the definition).
Someone also mentions we need to hate our enemies. But if justice is blind — remember the Lady Justice statue — that implies that justice isn’t about hate, or even revenge. Christianity has downplayed the Old Testament’s, “an eye for an eye…”
Fundamentally, we — and I mean the authorities, not vigilantes — still have to use force against those who break laws. We don’t have to do it with hate. And sometimes the force needs to be lethal. And we are far too squemish about it.
It’s hard to be compassionate towards those who hate you and will go so far as to surround your house and terrorize your family. You can turn the other cheek or defend your family. Jesus when he turned his cheek didn’t have children. I’m not sure he was advocating that for those who had children to defend.
If Christians had not defended their families, including engaging in war, Christianity would not have survived.
And then there’s “Justice and mercy have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed,” or something like that.
Psalm 85, maybe?
(But a lot depends on the Hebrew nouns there, and I don’t exactly know Hebrew.)
Or “Do justice and love mercy, and walk humbly with your G-d”? Micah, I think.
Hillel The Elder: In Avot, Hillel stated “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And being only for my own self, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?
Well said,
Well said, Al
I think it means that houses will be divided, friends and even families, because of faith. Look what happened with the election – people no longer speaking if they voted for one candidate, or they believe in standing up for principles, values and a moral code which comes from the Bible.
That sounds like the Bible verse Romans 8:31: Fear not – If God be for us, who can be against us?
There are other verses that say to not be afraid of those that can kill the body, but who can kill both body and soul, that there would come a time where we’ll have to choose.
Biography of Hillel the Elder, Jewish Scholar and Sage
@kayofmt, I love that you have been around. And I agree, Hillel was a great man on so many levels. Thanks for reminding us!
Yes, that’s true. But it goes farther, too. It’s not just disagreement. I didn’t want to go there, but it’s also finking out your family with the death penalty.
“And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by everyone because of My name.”
Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.
All good, except that he didn’t invent the GR by a long shot. Leviticus 19:18 is the original “Love your neighbor as yourself.”