Are our emotions enough of a reason to support the survival of mankind?
We, humans, often describe our race as a race of destroyers, of predators. The Neanderthals are gone, all the other humanoid races are gone. They died and did not pass on their genes. Maybe because of being murdered, maybe because of being left alone, but the case stands that we are what remains, the survivors. Perhaps it was not due to just one of our traits but the synergic relation between them.
And now we have reached a level of written word, of complex notions, and we can ask ourselves: Why do we philosophically support the survival of our race?
Our era of technology is destroying many ecosystems all around the globe. Species that once prevailed, like the ancestors of the homo sapiens, have been hunted down into extinction for fun and profit. We also work to protect certain ecosystems, but we choose them by the appeal we feel for the animals. Pandas are prettier than ugly insects. Rhinos are prettier than certain tribes who will lose their whole heritage due to emigration, foreign influence and forced policies.
We war, we have nuclear bombs, our governments are admittedly corrupt and deficient and we fail to find a solution to it all. Yet, double-speech finds a way to glorify humans and make us seem much more important than we apparently are. Didn’t we just evolve like all other species?
To join @anjkara in her series of posts[1][2][3][4] about arguments for and against religion: we seem to find countless spiritual arguments that justify our apparent superiority, such as having been created as masters of the world over all other species… and men over women?
These truths go unquestioned by many, but once we question them, the argument takes the direction of whether the dogma justifies something that is “correct” or “incorrect”, “justified” or “unjustified”. I have never, however, heard an atheist say that since we are not created by God to enslave sheep, but we are instead equal to them in evolutionary matters, that we, as a race, should consider the decision of unanimously stopping to exist.
Some reasons to consider against this mass suicide are the passing of a legacy to family and children. We tend to feel a special bond with people who are “related by blood” to us. Related by blood would mean that some ancestor probably shagged with another ancestor and the line continued until it arrived here, to us. Does this link have any magical or transcendental, perhaps spiritual meaning to our relationships? Does a human deserve more of my help than a meteorite on the other side of the universe? Why?
Are we humans causing more damage around us than there would be if we decided to disappear? But what is damage? Do the extinct races deserve to live? Perhaps their existence is just as absurd as ours. Maybe there is no deserving. If nothing deserves protection because everything is just as accidental to nature, is there any justification toward laws and rules against the damage that we may cause, accidentally, through negligence, or intentionally, to other beings and things related to such beings?
We protect the “human rights” of criminals. Is it because we are also human? I certainly do not feel an ounce of understanding or empathy for a psychopath who smiles and laughs as he recounts the way he smashed his mother’s head in with a sledgehammer.
“Will and do to thy neighbour those things which thou wilt that he should do to thee” (Source)
Why do we say this phrase and similar ones? Maybe it is because we feel like it could be us instead of them. Yes, I should not support the jailing of this psychopath because it could be me…? I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe it’s because we’re all human, we’re all in this together, moving like a herd toward the slaughterhouse that is inevitable death, both as individuals and as a collective. We should help each other in these fleeting moments because, beyond our empathy and genetical gregariousness, we identify as humans and we are egotistic enough to believe our own self-delusions when we assert our superiority over other things.
But I don’t run on philosophy just as cars don’t run on environmental friendliness and love. I run on emotions, energy, genes and circumstance. Even though I do not have any rational reason to support humanity, I still do as much as I allow myself, and I indulge myself quite a lot. In the absurdity of existence, there is no reason to help humans, but there is no reason not to do it, and we are very emotionally tied to those similar to us.
Empathy runs through our nervous systems. There is no changing this. Perhaps there is no reason, or maybe there is. I hope, from my anthropocentrism, to one day realize that we are actually superior, but until then, I indulge in my self-interested altruism to improve my surroundings because it makes me happy. And what else is there but watering our own happiness in this vast speck of dust we live on in an infinite universe of darkness and cold?
All images taken from Pixabay
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Loved seeing this subject! I shared on my instagram the other day a few sad thoughts about Sudan, the last male white rhino dying. I cannot even begin to fathom where we think we got the right to treat this planet and its many creatures so horrifically.
So many people are totally unconscious of how their actions ripple out into the world. Not that I believe myself to be fully conscious by any means, but I at least try to pay attention to how my choices and the choices of the people I support play out on the larger stage.
I think a lot of wanting to reproduce and have children is for that emotional support. As we age, we need youthto hel p take care of us and adopt the physically demanding jobs of adulthood. That was a survival technique, but now that we have prolonged our lifespan through medical procedures etc, the amount of elderly is beginning to weigh down on the youth, and we won't be able to sustain this momentum.
In the end, I suppose, what can we really do but try our best?
Thanks for sharing these thoughts!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts too :)
Rights are a tricky thing since they are our own creation. We decide what we "should" do out of our judgement and then we enforce these thoughts upon reality, upon others and upon our expectations.
And yeah, I hadn't actually thought of that about children being our emotional support. Maybe not so much as pets but as an insurance of the future? Like investments in crypto, but with a much bigger emotional charge and a lot of genetics in the way.
<3
Hiya Sharon
Great article. I haven't read anything this interesting on Steemit in ages! Thank you for tagging me. I'm so glad I didn't miss this.
That's so true. We pick and choose favourites and wallow in our superiority (and of course the men get to be best of all in this game).
In regards to empathy and humanity sacrificing itself in favour of sheep (and psychopaths), I think this has already begun. We have breatharians and others adopting diets which leave them with deficiencies in favour of the species we eat. We have do-gooders and bleeding hearts embracing the criminally insane. If we continue along this road, some batches of humans, over-intellectualising, eschewing their nature, will devolve (as a result of lacking essential nutrients) or fall prey to the callous individuals they help.
Great article. Loved it.
Thanks
Anj x
Humans are very weird. I think that what I find the strangest is that we pathologically fill the gaps in what we don't know with fantasies. Not only religion but morals and illusions of absolute purposes, emotional treasures kept from ages ago that resurface in the shape of guides. These lead to the different groups of people that pull to different sides wanting to see the world in the way they think is right.
And this, in turn, becomes what you mentioned. Breatharians, defenders of this and that jumping in one leg in a protection ritual for whatever they chose to protect or destroy. And it's all based on thin air. And self-interest, which is, in the absence of certainties, the only certain remnant, is condemned instead.
We could be in the bloopers section of the movie of the universe. :P
Hiya Sharon
Yes, I hear ya. That's the tragedy of it all, seeing the world only through one lens -- polarising and deluding themselves that they, and only they, have the answers or solutions. Weird and scary.
So true hahah XD
We absolutely deserve every bit of what's going to happen to us. In the long run, it will always be about survival. There's no deserve anywhere in this picture. The universe is brutal.
I don't see any link from "we aren't special" to "we should cease to exist". More like as we have nothing special compared to other animals, we all are looking at survival. Except a significant difference is that most humans are not in a subsistence mode of survival. I'm not sure where I'm going with this but anyway, yeah... I don't think we are that special. Special, but not special.
Special but not special? What do you mean?
Hmm, the link I had meant was that if we think that anyone or anything deserves protection from destruction and humans are destroying and causing so many "evils" (as judged by humans), then humans should judge themselves as deficient and decide to disappear.
But we still remainm so this is a bit of delusion where we judge evils but consider that humanity is good.
Then comes the conclusion that there is no good or evil in the universe except the one we humans judge to be good or bad. Therefore we just live on for ourselves. Hmm. It's not really well explained, is it? LOL. Maybe I haven't been very clear-minded recently.
And it's remarkable that we are even in that state of awareness I suppose is what I'm getting at.
And I think the reason we bother to label good or evil at all is for the survival of a particular group of people. Order, control, and all that stuff.
That for sure is amazing. I love being able to sit under the full moon and think about the many tales about werewolves, think about the stars far away, the constellations and how tiny I am in comparison. And then a bird flies over and I feel a little shame that maybe no other animal can enjoy the pleasures of awareness.
And I agree with you, I think that the concept of good and evil depends on the person who thinks of them. Each society has a different set of morals and globalization homogenizes these morals. But before, it depended on the rulers, the "chief" society, the one that survived and was stronger in the wars, be them physical with weapons or cultural/economic.
A lot of our problems are caused by we humans. I'm African, I believe our problems came with the Western Civilization. We had our ways of doing our own things, we lived life the right way, advanced at our own pace.
Then the Europeans came, trying to Fast-track everything and change us.
This pattern of government, this centalization is no good. A tiny group of people making selfish decisions.
And most recently, the development of technologies without considering the impact. Nanoparticles are future threats.
Do you consider then that we should stop certain topics of research and mark them as "forbidden"?
What would be your solution to stop the daring scientists?
The Atomic bomb was one of the technologies that many would rather not have.
We dont necessarily have to mark any technology forbidden.
How about if you are to bringing up a new technology you also develop means of combating it's negative impacts. Like making a poison and making it's antidote.
Yea, atomic bomb too
I also don't like over-experimenting with the human body.
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
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Thank you bot. I agree wholeheartedly with your evaluation.
Sister sorry plz remove flag
I admire your work @cryptosharon
I hope you'll tell me your opinion about the topic then :)
Yah good dance like it very much @cryptosharon
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You might be glad to know that the emotions and energy of some persons focus on finding solutions to human-caused problems, like the destruction of the environment. Projects like the international effort of the Norway-Doomsday Vault , private efforts like the Vivos Global Genome Vault, and others in the works provide a ray of for humanity and the animal/plant kingdom it oversees. In the event human wisdom falters in the future, society can reset its mistakes - to reseed and repopulate.
Yes, the plan does not prevent catastrophic events from occurring, and I don't know if anything will ever do, but it does provide a sense of assurance and hope. Humanity's capacity for self-destruction can only be matched by its determination to find a way to survive and prosper in the worst of circumstances. Peace. @fcpway
The question would be, are the efforts that are being carried enough to counter the destruction that we are causing? I think not, so I'm not glad that we break a child's legs and then put a cast around it to let it heal. But yeah, a cast is better than no cast; it's just not enough to make me happy about the topic.
As humans, we have that choice - to accept or reject the adequacy of actions/ideas. In this sense, we also decide on quantity - how much of it is required to bring satisfaction or equity. Unfortunately, there are never enough resources to fulfill everyone's needs and wants (We each are so uniquely different). With rare exceptions, most humans abide by greed and fear. Having inherited this survivalist attitudes, it is not strange to see these views reflected in the governance of so many societies that practice destructive, self-serving behaviors at the expense of others or the planet. Still, regardless of how wildly unmanageable humanity becomes due to its nature, I believe there will always be hope for positive change, and any hint, regardless of how small, should be welcome with open arms.
Thank you for allowing me to share. @fcpway
I love the way you write an article. Very entertaining.
I'm glad to have entertained you, Ryan.