(21 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)
Loading ...Here’s a question I’ve been asking a lot of people lately: What makes a human a human? Define humanity. What sets the human race apart from any other species of […]
Original post: How to be a Human
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Interesting and atypical. I don’t fully agree with V’s philosophy but it’s nice to know where people are coming from.
I think Violent Acres would be interested in a book titled “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
Perhaps.
I was raised catholic. They’re all 3 going to hell for this, even if I’m now an athiest.
Huh, I don’t want to avoid the blame, I want to avoid the bad concequence. If I’m not to blame the concequence doesn’t go away.
two words, twin oaks!!! it’s a commune in virginia where people work together for the ideal of a utopia, it has survived since the 1960’s and it is not ruled by a single religion or a “leader” however it is not a democratic place, the way people get incharge is that they ask to be and then they are put in charge. there are several books out about them. they let their children be homeschooled and publicly schooled. i haven’t been there but it sounds fantastic…they seem to be human to me.
their website with information on joining
http://www.twinoaks.org/
some you tube stuff about twin oaks
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7jL7RgJdSqM&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HnONQYP3oxM
VIOLENTACRES LOOK AT THIS!!!!!
i want to know what violentacres thinks of juliana wetmore
http://www.julianawetmore.net/
she was born with out a face!
no really, i’m not making that up. her toug just sort of hangs out and her eyes bulge and i don’t know if she’s mentally astute or, um, special but she can’t hear properly, since she has no freaking skull and she sinuses sre messed and she can’t eat except through tubes…ahh and she’s something to look at
PREVENTING MENPAUSE
http://www.preventingmenopause.com/
i want to know what V thinks of preventing it, anyone should take a look if they want because apperently doctors haven’t studied it since the 1940s and even then they didn’t use the right hormons…i sorta want to keep my figure forever, so i’m all for assuming i don’t get a tumor or anything like that, i am too lazy to find V’s email but i like her site…sometimes
I think you are right about people who aren’t emotionally twisted in some way needing to step in for the situation to be resolved. I do not think we should give abusers the excuse of ignorance. I think most of them are quite aware that what they are doing is wrong. They just can’t control themselves and they have no idea how to deal with things.
The people that really piss me off are the ones who would use something like, say, impatience with children to stop them from helping people who are being or have been beaten, sexually assaulted and/ or intellectually and emotionally scarred. They don’t like kids so they won’t do something to help other human beings in monstrous circumstances.
Yet you fucking people act as if you have been horribly wounded because you won’t get to see a picture that you talk endlessly about being fake anyway. Fuck the lot of you.
Amen about the picture, Ziah. I am sick of that shit. I wish V would come out and tell them to go fuck themselves.
Kitty Genovese. That would have been my main example here. And the fact that self-defense teachers tell women to yell “Fire” than “Rape” because no one wants to get involved in a rape case, but they’d love to watch a building burn down.
Don’t care about the pic of V - don’t really wanna know. Quite frankly, it would probably spoil the writing.
V cares about the children (the charity purpose) because she can relate to them. I get that - it’s a personal cause. What I don’t get is her saying (in an indirect, roundabout, generalised way) that those who don’t donate to the charity challenge (or think about the effects of their actions on the rest of the world) don’t care about the kids, and, essentially, they are not human because they won’t help.
I don’t think my actions, or lack thereof, make me any less human than V. I might be a different (non-abused) breed of human, but human nonetheless.
FYI: I didn’t donate and I still care about children. My vision is (unfortunately, apparently) limited to those related to me - my nieces and nephews - and trying to prevent them becoming monsters in the future.
I care about those within my Monkeysphere, and not so much about those without it. Does that make me less human?
Wen-
Yes. If we wait until our personal lives are perfectly set before we help others, we will never do so. We need to focus on both.
Wen-
I understand that you don’t understand, because you didn’t come from that background. That is fine. Your reason for not donating.. that is what disturbs me. The anon post above says it beautifully.
I guess with great responsibility comes great disappointment.
It’s not about making sure my life is ‘perfectly set’ before helping others, it’s about my personal priorities and what matters to me, right this minute. I have nieces and nephews who are in a position where they might be affected and my inclination is to help them first.
I don’t feel the need to make donations to make myself feel human.
Wen - your inability to recognize the consequences of your inaction toward the world outside your little bubble is a prime example of what it means to be an animal.
I think VA’s points go both ways, not only mindless consumerism but also mindless indifference to the rest of the world — both traits are hardly characteristics of real humans.
I didn’t donate to V’s personal cause but did donate to a local group in my area called Brothers, Big Sisters - I’m putting the money here in my local area where I grew in order to support my community. If she thinks that’s horrible then obviously it’s all about HER personal cause and not the personal CAUSES we each uniquely have and feel passionate about. I take care of my own family by working an 8-5 job, my husband works full-time too and we are doing our part by being good stewards and giving back to our community by donating to local food pantrys, visiting elderly people who have no family living and making sure we have the essentials to live — I don’t rely on government, I don’t rely on other people, I rely on ME!
I was sexually abused as a child by a family member at between ages 4-7 — I knew it was wrong, the abuser knew it was wrong but that did not stop the abuser. I told my mom, who did not believe me so it went on — even the doctor who examined time and time again — did nothing — he could of reported it at least.
Now that I’m an adult, I puke when I hear an abuser say in his/her defense ‘I was abused so that’s why I abuse’. Is someone holding a fucking gun to your head making you abuse? You know it’s wrong! You knew it was wrong when you were being abused. Your view of living was tainted and no one stepped in and told you that was NOT living. I chose not to be a victim and instead chose to give the power back to ME and not the abuser. I live my life without fear and when I have to see that family member — I make sure that he knows to keep away, I will be cordial but will not make him part of my life.
We do have brains and need to realize that we can overcome, we can be whole again — but you know what the fucking secret is? It’s you my friend, it’s you — “WE have the choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable” Attitude - Charles Swindoll
And “Remember if you ever neeed a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older you’ll discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” Written by Sam Levenson for Audry Hepburn.
Mindless indifference to the rest of the world is horrible. But does not giving money to one specific charity make you either “mindlessly indifferent” or an animal? I think not. Let’s see… if you don’t give money to help victims of Myanmar (or China, or the Christian Children’s fund, etc. etc. etc.), you’re an animal. If you don’t give to the fund that helps send foster children to college (which by the way is also a great charity), you’re an animal. If you don’t give money to help wildlife survive, you’re an animal. It’s not the idea of charity or of helping that I object to, it’s the idea that one charity reigns supreme above all others or that one group of people (or one person) is far more deserving of our dollars than another. The act of giving to charity itself hopefully means you are thinking outside of yourself (unless you’re doing it for tax reasons or because you think it makes you look good to others). Heck, helping your nieces and nephews also means you’re thinking outside of yourself. If Wen had said “I’m sorry, but I can’t give to charity until I’ve had all the big cars/vacations/massages/plastic surgery that I want to feel more complete within myself,” that would be parasitic, that would be a little bubble. I know people like that.
If V is angry at people who see violence happening around them and pass on by as if nothing is going on, that is wrong and indifference like that does make you an animal. But if V is also obliquely angry that not enough people gave to the charity of her choice, I’m sorry, but that is not the same as ignoring your next door neighbor’s abuse of her child. Not giving to V’s charity does not make someone an animal. Also, some people might argue that merely giving money to charity only makes people feel smug about “giving” when there are plenty of more direct ways to give. So… if you don’t volunteer at a homeless shelter or build houses for Habitat for Humanity, you’re an animal. If you don’t become a big brother/big sister, you’re an animal. If you don’t foster needy children, you’re an animal. If you don’t adopt said foster needy children if they become available for adoption, you’re an animal. And by the way, I give to charities and I also give money to help children in need. Which might mean I’m human, but it certainly doesn’t mean I’m god’s gift to humanity, either. After all, I haven’t built a house for a homeless person yet.
I didn’t give you any money, V, because I spent it all in Amsterdam. Also, I don’t give much to charity. And I don’t volunteer for stuff. And yet I’m still a human. Just like Hitler, and just like you.
Why do people care so much about your picture? I’m perfectly happy to go on seeing you as pixels on my screen. It’s probably all you’ll ever be to me and everyone else who reads your site anyway.
It’s sort of funny how indignant some of these people are. It’s like you woke them up to the reality of themselves, and now you must pay.
Pretty good post, V. Thanks.
I’m sorry, but I missed the part in this article where V mentioned her charity challenge at all..?
To me, it really seems like people are assuming she’s bitching at them about the charity when she could just be trying to make a point about society in general. Ever think of that?
Kir-
It is trying to help that makes the difference. One person cannot solve all problems for everyone. The important part is taking care of those close to you and also trying to help other people who suffer. I wouldn’t expect people to spend every moment of their lives or every dollar they have trying to help people. Just do something.
Fabian-
Biologically, you are human and so was Hitler. Congratulations. You both happened to be born that way. There is more to it than that. It is in the rest where you and Hitler fall short.
Her point in this post seems to contradict a point she made in this post.
Then: I should be able to die if I want to and it doesn’t affect anyone!
Today: Um, you can’t even die without it affecting someone, no matter how hard you try.
Change of heart, or just a common contradiction?
I’ve said for a while now that we each have to choose in life whether to be a positive influence, a negative influence, or no influence at all. We’re given the opportunity to choose between these three all the time, decision after decision.
It can be SO easy to abdicate responsibility, to say that no matter what we do, we won’t make a difference, to see the enormity of the world and say that one person just can’t make a difference…
The thing is, though, we CAN make a difference, just as the dripping of water in a cave can create amazing structures… We just have to be consistent. And the more of us that have this attitude, the more overall that can be accomplished.
So, ask yourself… What are you going to do the next time one of those decisions approaches?
Some would argue that the difference between human and animals is that animals act on instinct alone, while humans are self-aware and have the conscious to choose between following instinct or throwing it out the window.
Oh, extra point to make:
You say animal wouldn’t do anything and that it wouldn’t care. Ever see a child being beaten if front of their own dog? Depending on the dog, it will most likely attack the person harming the child. Same with Molucan Cockatoos.
Very philosophical, V! Since I have degree is such things, I find it pertinent to wave my psychological endowments all over this thread. There are really two things meant by the word “Human.”
There’s the descriptive definition of “Humanity,” which defines us as categorically apart from all animals - oblivious to the fact that this system is enormously biased, since we’re the ones who made it. Famously, humans were defined as “rational animals” (specifically for our meta-cognition, thinking about thinking) instead of “featherless bipeds,” which defines us just as adequately without the whole high-and-mighty-king-of-the-jungle vibe you get from the other definition. Honestly, I think the best descriptive definition of humanity is as the “categorizing animal” since we’re the ones putting all God’s creatures in separate boxes, the rest of creation is too busy living.
There’s also the normative definition of “Humanity,” which is the way in which something is seen as ‘humanitarian’ or ‘inhumane’ or just plain ‘inhuman’. This use implicitly claims we have are distinct from all animals because we have the greatest capacity for mercy. While some animals, herbivores especially, are capable of living without harming other living creatures, it’s a stretch to say that any creature can have compassion for something that’s trying to eat it. While, admittedly, only the greatest humanitarians can make the claim of truly loving their assailants, they are people from whom entire religions are founded, precisely because they make ‘being human’ seem like a worthy cause and not merely an incurable condition.
I think the wisest definition of what it means to be human is a loose one, observing the fact that we can match the depravity of any animal, but also rise above whatever boundaries we once imagined ourselves having. The definition of human is somewhere between a god and a roach. I know that’s not very precise, it includes all sorts of housepets for example, but considering how much easier it is for most people to sympathize with their pets than strangers, I’m quite alright with it.
And to answer your question of who’s to blame: it’s anyone and everyone placing blame instead of accepting the problem; blame will never suture a wound or lull a crying infant to sleep, healing begins at the end of blame.
Humans are animals… simple as that. No difference.
My view of Vi is different, which does not mean it is right.
She tends to call a spade a spade, not a teaspoon. So, IMO if she wanted to say we were animals because we didn’t support her fund raising scheme, she would have said so very plainly. Instead, she apologized for not being a better motivator. Personally, I think the fact she raised several thousand dollars for a good cause is a positive thing. Failure to reach an artificial goal is not a true failure, perhaps more indicative of an unrealistic goal.
What I see is a woman who tends to write what is on her mind at a given moment. Her mind is active and wanders all over the universe.
So, I think she wrote what she did is because it was on her mind. Yes, perhaps as a result of the fund raiser, but not limited to the fund raiser.
I, for one, do not think anyone is every obliged to do anything for others. Most people want to but that is personal choice. Right now, I am funding a university diploma for a young niece in Third World rural Mexico. For the price of a good used mini-pickup, an ambitious young woman will be the first graduate from college in the history of her direct ancestry, as I was the first college graduate in the history of my direct ancestry in 1980.
She works hard. She is ambitious, unlike her sister who is far more intelligent. She wants more out of life than cooking; scrubbing; cleaning for a quarry worker. I chose to fund her advanced education because I was curious if she could make it. I did not feel obliged at all to do it. I wanted to do it. I don’t even really care much if she drops out and gets married. What I am paying for is an opportunity she would otherwise not have. What she does with it is up to her.
I find it fascinating that many people who think anyone who knows a kid is being abused and does nothing about it is an animal, also hate a president who decided to take out a fiend who killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, including kids, and whose sons had a bad habit of raping attractive little girls they see in the streets. Just because they don’t think he was a threat to US.
Speaking of “human” what about human kindness and common decency?
My best friend lives on the same street as Heather Armstrong. She didn’t know who she was until she recognized her neighborhood and her neighbor on some TV show.
It’s sad when hard-working, honest people have real jobs to pay their mortgage and white-trash like the woman from Dooce.com can pay for a $700,000 house
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2160+E+900,
+Salt+Lake+City,+Utah+84108&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=24.514195,59.414063&ie=UTF8&ll=40.752621,-111.828761&spn=0.011411,0.029011&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr
just by writing for 20 minutes a day about her boring life.
I get that ads on websites help pay the bills but what gets me is that she seems to capitalize on other people’s problems or get sympathy because so many people dislike her. Shouldn’t she at least give some of her earnings to charity or find a way to give back to her readers?
Humans are nothing but big monkeys that think they’re smart.
Many very good points. And she has tendency to lay them out straight, so there’s not really any need for me to praise on those. I do what I enjoy more. Picking on the indifferencies in our thoughts. As usual… longer text than my concentration span allows me to proof-read.
Thoughs (mosly nitpicking) while reading the post:
- Opposable thumbs is one contributing factor for larger brains. Possibility to solve more complicated puzzles with more nimble fingers will develop the brain.
- Evolutionary luck? Brave statement. Need elaboration. I don’t think it’s luck that the ape with more nimble fingers were able to make more efficient spear and use it more efficiently and out-breed or kill the less talented ones. The idea of evolution is to make changes and weed out the weaker ones. Luck is a pretty tricky word to use because of all the intrepretations.
- I would refrase “humans are better than animals” to “humans are better than other animals” if you claim to be an atheist - therefore you most likely don’t believe in creationism of any sort. Or maybe you have another theory than evolution?
- Atheist, eh? How do you know god doesn’t exist? You have some sort of blind faith in non-existence of god?
- Our genes want to survive as much as the next animal’s. We can supress those urges, though. I wouldn’t put it as far as stating “survival instinct as well a desire to preserve and protect the rest of the world”. They should mean pretty much the same thing. A locust can’t comprehend it and its mates are killing an entire field. We can, so in order for us to survive, we shouldn’t do that. But look at the world, we are still fighting should we believe we have fouled up this world or not. We don’t really even try to save it.
- Just recently I read from the paper that a gorilla ran to a crying baby who fell in her cage in a zoo to comfort the baby. Caring about another species? Isn’t that human? Another one was when dolphins had guided a mother and a baby whale out of shallow water.
- Longer time ago I’ve read about cases where dolphins had just for the fun of it bitten several times a lost baby whale until it bleeds to death. Must be fun to watch someone die. And hey, cats are smart? Do you know any cat owner who denies that? Yet, they may play with the mouse for a long time before killing it. Just for the fun of it. (Oh, and don’t get me started on chimpanzees…)
- More more more? Like, say, a hunter-gatherer who don’t lose things anymore?
- A parasite? Now we are talking. Ok, good points start here. That part about consequences is exactly how I think how karma works. Not in any next-life bs. How you behave alters how others precieve you - and they act according to it. Hm.. should blog that some day… or perhaps I form a religion. Have to figure out if it is going to be a theist or non-theist -type. Since for the 1 of 3 results, I would have a fourth one. That’s gonna be a long one to explain. Invert side goodness. Not for the good of others, but yourself. As we are joined together. Even the Amish visit hardware store evey now and then. It would be optional for you to care about others for your (and yyour genes’) sake. Not for the other’s sake. Kinda the base for my belief-system. Get parasitic benefits, yet appear to be contributing. I don’t work as a computer techie because I want that people can work better and can give to their companies. For me computers are toys. I don’t really enjoy sudoku, but gimme a server that is broken. Now that’s a puzzle I like to solve. I play with toys, and the fools pay me money for it.
Now we enter the world of politics. One truth may be: Bank loans made dollar fall? But isn’t dollar privately owned and sold to the government? And the government uses the taxes to pay the interest of that loan. The fact that even though they blamed Afganistan for those Saudi terrorists and they attacked Iraq because of that was actually quite accurate. Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction. We call them euros. 2001 he started to accept euros for oil. Surprisingly enough the rate that used to be 70 US cents for 1 euro, is now something like $1.60 for €1. Also, the money that has been printed with no base during the time when every country has to trade oil in dollars may prove to be the bubble. When some other countries start to deal with euros, others will get them, too. Dollars are streaming back and US has to pay for them. It has been even so bad that US was thinking about putting extra tax on imports from China. Yeah, piss off a country who has about 1.4 Trillion dollars just laying around… Does “flooding the markets” mean anything? Three best business in the world are drugs, weapons and oil. Afganistan has never produced so much poppies before the troops came in. So that’s no problem. The war effort has taken so long, that squeezing with war industry needs something else. People can’t handle squeesing more with weapons costs. Perhaps the third option?
But all in all very good writing. We mostly behave like parasites. Or locust. Or like Wachowski brothers wote, like viruses. Naw, more like locust. We consume everything we can around us, then expand our territory. But we start to run out of both things to consume and territory to expand. What makes us human? Religiously I would perhaps say “the ability to dream of god”. (I’m sure someone has already said that before me in some famous book I haven’t had the fortune to read.) Ability to do good and evil? No. Not really. Other animals can do that too. Maybe not in such extreme, but still. Ability for ultimate good while doing the ultimate evil? Not that one either. Why something extreme would make us humans? We are already on the “top of the foodchain”. And we have the largest brain. That should be enough extremes already.
I think the closest thing is that we have the ability to see we are destroying things around us for our temporary comfort, and it will destroy us eventually, but we keep on destroying and can in fact block our minds from it. No other animal is capapble of such complicated self-deception against everything we know and what feel in our insticts. Other animals just can’t do it.
Howdy all, Im new to this so please be at least moderately constructive. This was one of the first posts I read and it makes more sense that I have threaded my way through some of the other writing.
Before I start yabbering, I would like to take issue with the person that said ‘It doesnt matter if I kil myself’ or words to that effect. Thats not strictly true from a wider prospective, although it may be literaqlly true. My father was a murder victim. He was killed by a shotgun blast, straight through his head. Think about te next time you say ‘Shoot me in the face’. Ive seen it, its not pretty. The murderer was someone in the family. It doesnt matter who it was actually, but it turned out to be my father. If you can tell me that the senseless murder of your parent, or anyone else you may love or cherish, doesnt impact you, then I submit you arent human at all. If you turn that 180 degrees, if you were to kill yourself, you would similarly have to be dumb, blind or other to not realize the impact that has on others.
But as far as being human, I see a common idea reappearing in many of the essays. She calls herself a ‘warrior’, struggle is a common theme, as is self activation, self interest and self awareness. ‘How to Fight’ is part and parcel of this, but in being human, the choice must be made when to fight, and why. Humans fight and animals fight, but the similarities stop there. Fighting is a risk, a risk of self harm and possibly death, so why would you ever do such a thing? ‘I was drunk’ or ‘I was jealous’ or ‘The goddamned kid spiled grapejuice on the wite rug’ (WTF are you doing with children, a pet and a white rug?!?) arent reasons that qualify as human ones. Yes, they are all too human, but thats not what were talking about. Short form is, shit isnt going down in my perceptual area without my direct and immediate involvement. ‘Woman murdered/raped in front of 20 bystanders’ isnt something that will EVER go on in my zipcode. Maybe thats the ‘man’ part of human, biologically I am expendible, so I damn well better bring something to the table. One time, someone tried to commit rape in my neighborhood. Ill spare the details, but the young lady and the 4 guys went to the hospital and
I went back to my apartment to drink a beer.
Being human is being willing to fight for the things that make us human, rather than animals. Being a witness to a purse snatching? Only if the guy in question ends up outrunning me. As a human, you have to carry a sense of whats right and whats wrong around with you at all times and an accurate idea of what you can and cannot do. But if you are human, there are some thimes you have to push all your chips to the middle of the table, regardless of odds.
Lemme tell you about my hero. To be honest, I dont know his name, but I am sure I could find it if I had to. But this guy lived in a bulding in an area of Portalnd ME called Munjoy Hill. All the buildings n the ‘Hill’ were old, and they caught fire with some frequency, and one night it happened to my hero. He had a wife and 5 children and he went through the house and made sure he had every single child out. As he was throwing his youngest child to safety from the second floor, the building collapsed on him and burned him to death. I personally cant think of a better way to go.
Thats my idea of a human, I guess.
It seems her answer to “what is it to be human” is deeper than mine. To me, being human is a biological condition, and that is all. Not to say that I don’t think there’s more to leading a good life, etc. I’m too much of a scientist to say that these things are required to be human.
I also don’t like the distinction between human and animal. We happen to belong to a species that has really big cerebral cortices, and we have a society that has this structure where certain things are expected, etc. I don’t think it’s deeper than that. When someone doesn’t fit these expectations, I don’t think it’s right (meaning accurate, not a moral question) to call them not human.
Now, I think this post got off from the question. I do not think the post focused on what it is to be human. Although it does focus on an interesting philosophical discussion (that I can appreciate because of my big cerebral cortex).
We are also the only creature on the Earth to display savage, unbridled cruelty for sadistic or vindictive reasons. It is not only are (sic) ability to feel empathy but our ability to do the opposite. Let’s face it, human beings are fucking daffy.