ARE WE LOSING OUR HUMANITY?

It is a scary time to be alive. And not just because of the horrors of climate change, wage inequality, the Covid pandemic and ongoing violence. It feels especially scary because so many seemingly good people don’t seem to care about any of it. Or, if they do care, they seem to be fixated on the wrong things.

For most of my life, I felt closely aligned with the people who are most important to me. But over the last couple of years there has been a shift. I remain one of the few people I know who is still taking Covid seriously. And I have watched with confusion as loved ones have prioritized the growing rise in antisemitism over the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This type of tribalism, where one group clearly matters more than another, makes me sick to my stomach.

Why is it so hard to care about humans we don’t personally know or innately relate to?

Perhaps part of this can be explained by the limitations of the human brain. It is impossible for us to properly maintain connections with the vast amount of people we now have access to. Our brains are wired to filter out information so we aren’t constantly overwhelmed. Unfortunately, one of the things that is often filtered out is other people’s suffering.

This makes sense on a purely biological basis. There is so much sadness and cruelty in the world that if we let ourselves feel the weight of it all the time, we wouldn’t be able to do anything else. That’s why it’s easier to avert our eyes when we see an unhoused person rather than lose another day to fury over our society’s refusal to properly care for all its citizens.

If we let ourselves properly look, would we ever be able to look away?

I am certainty guilty of desensitizing myself. I don’t have the money or resources to fix all the things that need fixing, so I often feel a wall go up in my brain. I don’t let myself fully take in the realities of what so many people are going through and then I push away the guilt for doing so. I tell myself I have to do this in order to care for my own mental health, and on some level that is true. But I worry about becoming too desensitized. It feels impossible to find the right balance.

In many ways it is personally advantageous to not maintain our humanity toward people we think of as “other.” When you dehumanize certain groups, like we are seeing so many people do with Palestinians, you don’t have to grapple with how your own choices or opinions have caused harm. If you tell yourself Covid isn’t dangerous anymore, you can ignore all the groups who are the most at risk while not making any changes to your own lifestyle. And if you blame individuals for living on the street instead up accepting that social structures have put them there, it’s easier to vote against low-income housing that might lower your own home’s value.

It is easier to be a human when you don’t care about humans. Especially now when you can always find other people who encourage this kind of thinking. Echo chambers who pit groups against each other instead of valuing each life equally.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, I feel a growing sense of dread. I worry that we are on the precipice of giving into our worst instincts and losing the empathy and compassion that can tie us together. We are left with no good choices, only compromise and anger. If witnessing a genocide taking place in front of our own eyes every day isn’t enough to snap people out of their own self-interest, what will be? What future is even tenable in today’s rapidly deteriorating political and natural climate?

Right here is where it is easy for despair to settle in. To look around at all the people who don’t seem to care about these larger issues because only their close friends, family or whatever group they identify with gets priority. It’s easy to wonder: am I fighting a losing battle? Are humans destined to destroy each other?

Maybe.

But maybe not.

I personally think the only way to avert disaster is to do everything we can to hold onto our humanity and try to spark it in others. To not allow ourselves to “other” other people when it is convenient or easy. To fight against our instincts to identify with a tribe and instead view all of humanity as our family. And, perhaps most importantly, figure out how to get more people to want to do these same things.

That last part is what I have been struggling with the most. If I can’t get through to people I am close to in my own life, how can I possibly help right this ship?

At this point, I don’t have an answer to this question. But I know leaning into my own humanity, especially when it is painful, is probably the first step.

xoxo,

Allison

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