Sunday, April 28, 2019

Thoughts on Humanity

I find myself reacting to the inhumanity of humanity. People I care about seem to me to make distinctions between humans that I am unable to reconcile with my idea of humanity.

Many people seem to accept the idea of "race" as a distinguishing characteristic among humans as a given, although there is less science to support it than there is to support differences among various "breeds" of dogs. Why is that not absurd on its face?

Nationalism makes even less sense, especially in a country such as ours where we have gone to considerable lengths to eradicate our few common historical precedents. I've said before that everything European culture has done in American has been built over the dead bodies of the indigenous population and slaves. It appears that we gringos brought nothing with us but imperialism and hubris.

In the absence of science or logic, we find ourselves, as humans and a nation, unable to engage in meaningful discussions of a path forward together. That's a shame because, as I've pointed out before, there are an estimated 7.7 billion humans on Earth of whom about 4.3% are "American." If we seriously believe we're going to survive separately then I believe we're seriously delusional. If we seriously believe that the rest of the world is going to be patient while we get our shit together, again, I believe we're seriously delusional. On the other hand, I'm five weeks from my 72nd birthday so let me just apologize to my kids again and wish you good luck with that.

"No hay peor sordo que el que no quiere oír."


1 comment:

Vagabonde said...

I read your comment on Times Goes By about suicide. I had already come to your blog before and read some of your posts, but did not comment.

My husband’s father had Alzheimer’s disease for 15 years, ten in a nursing home and the last three or more as a vegetable. My husband always said that if he heard he had Alzheimer’s he would not come back from a hunting trip. So when we heard in 2009 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I was apprehensive. But he did nothing. The disease advanced and I was his 24/7 caregiver, alone, for about 10 years,and going crazy. My daughter asked me if we should go somewhere where assisted death is allowed but I just could not imagine that. He passed away suddenly last October in his sleep, about 3 or 4 years before the doctor projected. He was not a vegetable though. I had to place him in an assisted living for the last 3 months while waiting for the VA to approve him in a VA nursing home, they did, just one week before he died. Actually I had applied 2 years ago and they were too slow with too much paperwork. Sorry for being so winded. I believe that people should have the right to decide what they want.