What have we become? A reflection on being human

From the time Cain murdered Abel in a jealous rage, history reveals to us that cruel and callous behavior are nothing new to humanity. Probably the only difference is that this cruelty is posted on YouTube.  

One day, in a crime-ridden, south Chicago neighborhood, a 17 year old boy was beaten ruthlessly by thugs wielding a 2 X 4. Another teen, being a Good Samaritan, jumped in to help. But from behind, he was cold cocked by one of the attackers, wielding the 2X4 board.

I watched this brutality on the news. It was captured by a camera phone. The video shows the teen being hit, and as he was he trying to walk away, he stumbled to the ground. While lying there, lifeless, a punk kicked him in the head. He died later that day of massive head injuries.

Afterwards, the news media was interviewing witnesses, and a grieving grandmother, visibly anguished, cried out “What have we become!?”

Watching this violent beat-down on the news, it generated a lot of anger inside me; anger at the ease, by which one human can mercilessly beat another.

But what really disturbed me, was the “kick in the head” of a helpless teen, lying lifeless on the ground. It has been a few years since this incident, but I can’t shake the image.

The absence of ‘humanity’ in this sadistic act exposed the demonic power of evil. An evil ‘act’ happens when ones ‘humanity’ is stripped from them.

And when this happens the person is no longer seen as an individual with dignity and worth. Instead the person becomes an object; an impersonal nameless, faceless ‘abstract.’

Although the above incident was a few years ago, the grandmother’s anguished question has become a starting point for me when I hear of such callous treatment of people, I ask myself: “what have we become?”

We have become a culture severely deficient of ‘humanity’ in our politics; in our discourse and in our actions towards others with a different point of view.

We divide one another up by race, class, sexual orientation, gender and religious beliefs, among other numerous classifications and hyphenated groups; an abstracted humanity.

And when we reduce people to a ‘pigment color’ or a financial status, we remove their humanity. The person becomes an object to be exploited and a ‘means’ to a political or ideological end.

What have we become?

We have become a culture without the knowledge of a holy, loving and just God. Instead we have built a Tower of Babel and declared ourselves god. Thereby we removed our humanity and replaced it with a false divinity.   

It’s time to return to earth and reclaim our humanity and treat others with the dignity and worth as fellow humans.

We can ask ourselves ‘What have we become? But a further question that could be our starting point is “What will we be?”