The History of Humanity

Humanity is defined in two parts: humankind, civiliazation, people, human race; and kindness, charity, compassion, sympathy, mercy. It seems to me that humanity has lost its humanity. This is not to say that individuals cannot express their humanity; there are plenty of examples of individuals or even small groups showing all the traits of humanity. What I am saying is that society at large seems to have very little humanity.

It’s the old adage that courage is doing alone what you would do in front of a crowd. This can be seen as the difference between bravery and bravado. Most nations exhibit bravado, few exhibit bravery. They follow the pack decision. They succumb to peer pressure. This is not always a bad thing. It is not always a good thing either.

Crimes against humanity has been defined as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population … or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds ...” (August 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal). A search through any history book will reveal the depth to which humanity has sunken. It would take millions of hours and more energy than I have to detail every example of how humanity has been by-passed for the sake of material gain.

One could make the claim that most of these examples would be one person or one small group of people who have influenced events to the extent that the nations humanity has suffered. One could also make the argument that society allowed those people and groups to rise to power in the first place, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke).

Jean Jacques Rousseau accused civilzation of being a corruption of humanity’s nature. It seems to be true that the more civilized a nation becomes the more it looses it’s humanity. Tribal communities seem to have a greater capacity for humanity that our cities of millions of people. The only times that nations seem to reach out a hand to help other nations is when the eyes of the world are upon them. Whether this be bravado or a reaction to the shame of inaction does not matter, it is not an immediate reaction from the heart. The true expression of humanity would be to help those who have no voice to call for help, without fear or favour.

The trouble with changing a society is that it takes time, so take the time to change your own behaviour. Only when we, as individuals, wear our humanity on our sleeve will our governments and other representative bodies follow suit. Embrace the kindness of strangers, be charitable and sympathetic in your actions and show compassion and mercy for your fellow travellers. The most important thing I would ask of anyone is to hold all of humanity to the same standard, regardless of colour, creed, religion or stupidity.