What does it mean to be human?
Do we truly know what it is?
“I love mankind, he said, “but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This quote from Dostoyevsky has greatly impacted me, as it seems he delved into something very few people even come to cross, let alone think of.
It seems as if he understood something ingrained deep into our human nature, witnessing the abyss of what we are and what we can be. It seems as if he managed to reflect upon himself through himself and by himself.
He observed the world long enough until he learned that humanity or human nature is nothing but a mischievous entity that is capable of hating itself and the world around it. Or use whatever it can to its benefit with deceiving lies to convince itself that what it is doing is far from selfishness.
It’s curious…
Among all this confusion and puzzlement lies a question that leaves me extremely perplexed every time I ask it.
What does it mean to be human?
A simple question that perhaps you have never thought of. After all, why would you? The answer seems simple enough, doesn’t it?
Being human is doing human things, right?
If only it was this simple because once you make the step towards criticizing this apparently simple answer, you soon realize the absurdity of it all.
You realize that we don’t have a definite definition of what being human means. It seems as if we only are humans without much reflection.
Once you make that step, you will soon fall into a complex situation.
You’ll find that there are two sides in which both judge the other for being what it is.
One side accepts its primal nature, people who fall in this category lie and deceive, they hurt others for their own benefit. They do whatever they can to survive even if it means hurting others.
That side breeds criminals, psychopaths, etc. Although this lies in the extreme, as it is present in people in general.
The other side does everything but fall for this primal nature, in fact, it fights it. That’s why those who reside on this side are kind, caring, and compassionate. They do whatever they can to prove to themselves that they are good people and that they are fighting that primal side although they are not aware of it unless they think about it for quite some time.
After all, to hurt others or to help them has little to do with morality in its absolute nature but rather what the person believes to be true and false.
Now that you are aware of this dual nature that inhabits each and every one of us, can you truly define what it means to be human?
Is it being primal as biology has shaped us to be? Or is it falling under the charming spell of rationality and always seeking to be against our own biology?
Which is real?
What is the true definition of being human?
You might go slightly far and say that it is in finding that balance. It is the balance of listening to your biology when it should be listened to with a rational mind.
That’s the perfect spot, isn’t it?
That’s comfortable, a place where balance solves pretty much everything.
Again, we must go further in order to truly know whether balance is true or not.
Is balance truly an answer, or is it in falling under one of the two categories cursing ourselves with the inability to fall back into the other one?
You’re probably wondering why.
Why ask all these perhaps “pointless” questions?
Wouldn’t we want to understand our own selves? Why do some of us commit horrible crimes? Why war and conflict is inevitable? Why in order to keep peace we must undoubtedly fight?
Why selfishness prevails no matter the exertions we make to lessen it?
Why do we hate and why do we love?
Wouldn’t you want to understand what it means to be human?
Who wouldn’t?
But this must come with a warning, that you might stumble into a harsh reality that will in some way blind you to the good side not because of its inexistence, but because of its incredibly small size compared to the bad side.
That’s why Dostoyevsky wrote that quote.
It isn’t a question of what is good, but what is bad and why it seems as if it is everywhere no matter what we do to make sense of it or to fight it.
With that in mind, I now leave you with your own thoughts, these questions, and these surface-level ideas about the two sides of humanity.
Perhaps you can go deeper and find the essence of what it means to be human.
Perhaps you can find an answer to a question that will bemuse me for the years to come.
