The Redefinition Of Humanity

We haven’t lost our humanity; we’ve redefined it as something more than muscle and blood and skin and bones. Now, our humanity is all batteries and pixels and satellites. We’ve extended ourselves so far outward that there’s nothing left inward. We’re entirely hollow, and ironically – but not surprisingly – hollow things are fragile and easily collapse in on themselves, which explains why our culture has become so self-centered.

Most people, and I’ll provide myself as an example, have an opinion of themselves that is diluted with self-importance. I drive just a little bit faster than the speed limit because I want to get there sooner than everyone else. I keep online journals because I think what I have to say is interesting. I think I’m a little bit better because I use proper punctuation, spell “yeah” correctly, and rarely – if ever – misuse a possessive s.

Lately grammar has become so ill-formed that it barely resembles the English language, which is clearly a reflection on our collective intelligence. Basic language skills are the only thing we have to communicate with, and if we can abandon these so easily, what else might we sacrifice as we evolve? What else have we already lost?

We’ve gone from fists to hammers, sundials to microchips, rocks to missiles. Technology is just an extension of our limbs. We’ve got devices that we can operate as easily as we can think, but this has not made us any more intelligent; it has made us detached. We do not hunt or harvest, we do not build, we do not have sex strictly to reproduce. We are not the creatures that came down from the trees to begin civilization. We are anachronisms on a cultural timeline, out of place and out of mind, doomed to a destiny of repetition simply because we do not correct our mistakes. Not that this matters, though; we do not make mistakes. We make oversights. We make excuses.

Our global conscience is of questionable existence because of our narrow focus. In a broader horizon, we would see our past and our future, with our present somewhere in-between on a skewed line drawing closer and closer to the edge. There are sustainable societies in both our past and our future, like the covers of a story gone absurdly out of control of its author, yet we continue to write. And the grammar that we use is as flawed and imperfect as we command it to be. They’re not just typos; they are examples of our sloth. And being lazy, even in what might seem to be the most minor instances, impedes our development as society, because it does not just stop at these tiny imperfections. The smallest crack in a pane of glass will make its way across the entire surface unnoticeably until one day there is nothing left to see through. Our humanity is already as fragile as this, with cracks running out from the center. Thankfully, we can still see the past, and thankfully, we can still see the future. The question is, can we see through the glass clearly enough to see the immediate and, hopefully, the best direction to proceed?