The Human

In the turn of the century, the Human Genome Project mapped the instruction manual to our very being. What’s interesting is that we share 99.96% DNA with each other. That means the only difference between you and me is 4/100th percent. Bill Clinton, in his last speech before leaving the White House cited the Human Genome Project’s findings and asserted, “We have more in common than differences.”

The ethos of our society is we are all different, unique, special individuals. It’s associated with the likes of cultural and moral relativism, a philosophy that expresses, “you’ll believe in your beliefs and I’ll believe in mine. Ultimately, we can’t judge.” This comes from the value of tolerance, in hope for a better unity. To judge is ethnocentric and indicative of superiority. Racism, sexism, gay discrimination, xenophobia, and so on can be traced back to a group judging another group as inferior. Implicitly, values and ultimately, Truth are relative to time, place, and manner. In essence, context matters.

As special unique individuals, we are unpredictable. What is true for one person is not true for another. The notion of unpredictability in humans suggests a certain amount of restraints in assuming laws in human nature.

No more illustrative than in predicting or projecting human history. Alan Greenspan, in all his years in the forecasting business explains, ‘forecasting is no better than 50 years ago, when I started. If there was a formula to measure euphoria and fear, then you wouldn’t need these math models.‘

Karl Marx predicted the end stage of History will usher in a Communist revolution in Western Europe, filled with violence and glory under the red flag, unite the world in a worker’s utiopia. Instead the 20th Century witness the failure of Communism. On record, we haven’t had the best luck in determining the future of mankind.

But may I retort:

Polar Bear Theory

So to figure out the Human, you kind of have to step back and ask, “If I was a Martian, how many humans does it take to abduct and anally probe to figure them out?” Apparently not many.

If you want to study any species, be it chimps or polar bears, you don’t need to examine each and every one of them to find patterns in their behavior. If you want to know the mating of polar bears you don’t need the entire population of them–just 200 or so. You quickly figure out certain behaviors manifest when something happens to them.

Humans are animals too; a bit more complicated, but we got a good amount of recorded history to figure out our basic nature, Human Nature. All you need is a random representative sample, study them, and you can pretty much predict people. Make some neat bell curve graphs, publish it in a journal, and call yourself clever. You figured out the mystery of being a human being. Not convinced? As anyone majoring in marketing and advertising about what works in getting people to buy stuff.

Coupled with our shared DNA, we operate under the exact same emotional framework. You experience sadness, depression, euphoria, angry, greed, envy, jealous, and so on just like a kid in China, like elderly woman in South Africa, or middle age man in England. People, dare I say, are the same anywhere you go. My high school history teacher once told the class that in his vast travels, no matter where you went, you can talk about two things with men: girls and sports. Shocking isn’t it?

Can’t Judge?

When it comes to generalizing people, many get defensive and say you can’t judge; that I generalize too much. But my responses is usually that the whole practice of medicine is contingent upon the categorization of people, and you have to make judgment calls. And when I say medicine, I am including mental health, i.e. psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalytic, and plain old therapy. I am simply regurgitating the information in the form of a blog.

Judging includes defining healthy and unhealthy boundaries. Judging includes praising the merit of one’s character and holding the foolish accountable. It means taking stand against genocide in Darfur, Congo, and Rwanda. Its means judging female circumcision, additionally, the cultural argument that comes with it as well. I say unwanted pregnancies, and consequential, unwanted children, is something to be quite anger about. Deadbeat dads, irresponsible sex, and not being their for children is grounds for a lot of judging.

Two Generalizations

In my years of schooling, struggling to understand the Human, I’ve come to understand we have two unique characteristics that do makes us different and unique from the animal kingdom:

1.  We use other central nervous systems, or other human beings, to regulate our emotions and contain impulses, i.e. creating boundaries.

2. We are the only animal to have the ability to introspectively evaluate ourselves by looking back a lifetime of events in order to change our futures.

Lastly, the Human is a funny animal. It needs to be, for the absurdity of just being in existence, God must have one sense of humor. Don’t believe me? Next time you pray, having your personal relationship with Him, ask Him, “why did You make women in their third trimester of pregnancy, most aroused and horny?”

I suspect it’s a joke on us.