What does Humanity mean to you?

  19-Jul-2019 13:00:06

Philosophyethics morality


When you see a roadside beggar, asking for money, and you help him by generously awarding him with some free bucks, is that what you consider as humanity? Or, when you see some children harassing a puppy and you decide to take the stand and scare away those children to save that helpless puppy, is this when you consider yourself to be humane? Simply, showing compassion towards something that everybody else is turning a blind eye towards doesn’t make you a good human being.

How we treat a person during the darkest moment of their lives is a benchmark of humanity. The current society’s disproportionately impacts on the lives of poor people, people of color, people experiencing mental health issues, often making fun of them in a very harmful way so dangerous that it distorts the mindfulness of a person and shakes him to the core, that he is not able to cope up with this every second changing world. Every ambitious writer talks about how introverts have the power to achieve something big in life because they have their focus at a single path . What they miss out is the real reason behind a person being an introvert. It is not that an introvert is scared of being out of place in the society, rather, he is too afraid to even participate in the competition of being an urban cool person. Judging people has now been built into our DNA, we judge with our eyes closed and we put a label on them, and as long as we ignore this fact, the pain of those people suffering under the oppression of this so-called social media accepted world, we are never going to escape those origins.

To be mad in a deranged world is not madness but sanity, this is the success mantra of introverts. Silence is really loud and the extroverts know the power that it has, clearly it is something they do not have in their possession. Silence is deafening. So the next time when you will be making a pass at an introvert, just remember, that person has a powerful weapon to accomplish something that you only dreamt of. This again leads us back to the question--what makes a person human?

Take an example, if you are alone at a bus stop, without any money, and you have lost all your belongings including your wallet, phone, car keys and you have to board or else you will miss a meeting and a person buys a ticket for you without hesitating or asking what happened to you, don’t you just want to give a hug to that person for being so nice without judging that you might be a thief or a terrorist or a psychopath but in spite of all the odds, he came forward and helped you. This is the true definition of humanity. No wonder, the concept of humanity has a broader spectrum and most of the lines are blurring around things like compassion, benevolence and spirituality, but you get the idea of what it is. A lot of time you don’t register the important moments as they happen. You only see that they were important, when you look back, and in your heart feel that yes you might have done something good to deserve the praise that you get for your actions. Nobody is asking you to be a role model.Instead, we are asking you to step out of this vicious circle of being socially acceptable.

Step out, because you are already the best version of yourself. Be kind to one another, it is okay if you are an introvert, because you have the most amazing gift that one can have, silence. Help anyone in need regardless of their age, demeanour, race, or clothes. You are so much more than this. So again, I would ask all of you, what does Humanity mean to you?

By – Arindam Thapliyal