What exactly is humanity? What exactly does it mean to have humanity? Do you know if you are a humane person and what is the difference between having humanity compared to not having humanity?
Right now, living through the Covid19 world pandemic as of today over 350,000 people have been infected and over 15,000 deaths worldwide. With the stock market closing in the 18,000s from 30,000 not that long ago, it has never been clearer to me what humanity is right at this moment. Humanity should be displayed and revealed to everyone everywhere, but…it’s actually not.
Are some of us still in denial of the crisis or do some people really have no humanity?
I want to discuss what having humanity means to me so you can assess what it means to you.
The definition of humanity is different than, “having” humanity in my personal opinion. The definition of humanity is,” The human race; human beings collective.” The definition of ,” having humanity is,” Caring for and helping others whenever and wherever possible.”
(Human is a noun. In this case; however, we are using it as an adjective to describe something and then by adding the, “ity,” on the end makes that adjective an expressive state or condition. Added to the nerdy info…. the opposite of humanity is inhumanity. So, inhumanity is NOT being humanly collective.)
So, let us change the word humanity with synonyms of humanity: humankind, mankind, humanness, society, people. The anonyms listed in Webster Dictionary are: cold-heartedness, pitilessness, cruel.
So, in times of a world pandemic, what constitutes inhumanity or humanity and now we are in a time of need for the world, are you showing signs of humanity or inhumanity?
To have humanity, you need to be showing acts of working together for the people of the human race to a better society. Your action and nonaction of what you do during times like this will clearly show if you have humanity or you don’t.
So, let’s list things that are going on right now that show you have humanity as an individual or company.
You are keeping yourself safe with social distancing and being mindful to not spread the virus. If you are a company, you are not requiring your non-essential employees to work especially if they have medical conditions putting them at higher risk of catching Covid19 and dying…you care about your employees. Granted, if they have already been infected and are immune, then that is a different story.
You have humanity if you are like Netflix and donating 100 million dollars to the media workers in need or you are Carnival Cruise line donating ships to make hospitals to care for people.
You have humanity if your company is helping defer payments owed by customers affected. You have humanity if you are an individual helping your neighborhood obtain supplies and food for your community.
You have humanity if you are not showing greed and price gouging resources such as facemasks and healthcare supplies. You have humanity if you care about the future of our human race.
“You have humanity if you care about others and their wellbeing.”
If you or your company do not have humanity at this particular moment in your lifetime…. then why?
Are the people suffering, the healthcare workers working overtime, the deceased increasing by the day not instilling compassion?
Now is not the time to price gouge, put your employees at healthcare risks, and infect those around you who could possibly die. Have you no humanity? Have you no compassion? Have you no love?
“Basic humanity allows us to grow beyond the confines of personal experience and prejudice to recognize the inherent value of other people. The more in touch with basic humanity, the more humane we feel. When out of touch with it, we feel less humane.” (Stosny)
How do you restore love aka…How do you restore your humanity?
1) You must love the stranger. The capacity to see the others as like oneself and worthy of the same mercy and charity.
Put yourself in the shoes of the infected, the shoes of the businesses on the verge of bankruptcy, the shoes of those who do not know how to get their next meal, the shoes of those who are dying.
2) You must love the unborn. The concern for those who do not yet exist and whom one will never know, but those whose lives one is sharing in the present.
If you do not care about the future of humanity, say so and then ask yourself why. Being human is having the ability to love and if that is not embedded in you, do some soul searching and find out why.
3) You must love the truth. The strength to resist illusions and lies and square up to uncomfortable facts of all kinds.
Snap out of denial. You must not ignore the hard truth. Everything you go through may be a different experience than what you grew up with or are even to this day that you are around personal and business-wise. Just because you are not around it, does not mean it is not there. Knowing the types of living and working situations the human race has and diversifying your knowledge can help you restore your humanity.
People are not objects. People are not only numbers on paper. In the middle of this worldwide deadly pandemic…. How many people and companies can honestly say they have real humanity?
References
CDC. (2019). Psychology of a Crisis. Retrieved from https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/ppt/CERC_Psychology_of_a_Crisis.pdf
Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theschooloflife.com/
Chhatwani, A. (2014, August 16). Importance of humanity. Retrieved from https://gulfnews.com/going-out/society/importance-of-humanity-1.1372752
Stosny, S. (2011, September 9). Basic Humanity and Well Being. Retrieved from Home. (n.d). Retrieved fromhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201109/basic-humanity-and-well-being
