By Mark Antony Rossi
The ancient story “The Tower of Babel” is perhaps the first recorded instance where human beings were feverishly attempting to be more than merely human. This insistence on being extra human is a recurring theme throughout history. In recent times it literally ends with Nazi human experimentation and extermination. What drives this obviously deep-seated need to rise above our humanity?
The search for this answer first leads to Organized Religion. We are constantly told humans are born into Original Sin. We are flawed creatures with weak flesh in need of salvation. We are not content with improving our circumstances since our only purpose is to attain supernatural status. The subliminal implications here should not be missed: this philosophy is heavy on guilt and death. While it is agreed that humanity is divinely created its intrinsic value appears to be cast aside for another agenda.
A further search leads to another possibility involving Big Science. It regularly reminds we should strive to enhance our abilities through artificial means. It preaches countless sermons about faster brains and longer life spans. It teaches ad infinitum about the speed of computers and the age of untouched forests. The subtext is even clearer: we have a superhuman destiny. While it is argued that humanity is a product of evolution its sovereignty is held in contempt as a stumbling block to the tenets of progress.
What is this obsession with rising above our humanity? If I was to guess based on the influence of Religion and Science I would have to say it lies with Control. Because quite frankly I don’t need to traverse a desert to be a better person and I certainly don’t need a computer chip in my brain to think smarter. Humanity is plagued with ideologies focused on improving superficial aspects of people without ever addressing the darkness of the collective heart. This tragic misdirection blunts our potential as human beings and enriches those whom benefit from our ignorance.
Whether you believe in science or saints or a marriage of both Common Sense rejects the schools of thought whom foster anti-humanism and Tran-humanism since these philosophies fight the very definition of what it means to be human. A simple psychological examination will reveal those whom strive for unnatural perfection are usually self-involved socio-paths wrecking havoc on a world they want to control. Their criticism of humanity is not intended to improve humanity; but to sell you their cure for humanity. The same intellectual scam circulating the cultural globe for the past six thousand years. You cannot improve on anything you do not understand. And you won’t improve on anything you do not respect.
Those in the know are opposed by forces using marketing rather than morality to sedate the masses from their higher responsibility of conducting their humanity without fear of failure. By any ethical means possible we need to find strength to be human in this dark day of machines. We need to throw Big Brother and Big Science out the window to regain our human perspective. It might be the only path to avoid the false extremes empty ideologies employ to corrupt our natural instincts. It is plausible to believe in an Almighty and believe in Antibiotics and not abuse their essential goodness in our lives. An intelligent compromise when you also choose to believe in the enormous potential of Humanity.
About the Author: Mark Antony Rossi is a poet, playwright and author of the bioethics volume “Dark Tech” now available from Amazon. His most recent plays have been produced in Liverpool and New York. http://markantonyrossi.jigsy.com