Romancing the Human
We sure do romanticize about ourselves.
We have all looked at images of our planet. Think about it again. What do you see? Land masses. Water. Do you see humans? No. How many times does this image have to be magnified before we see humans on earth? Thousands?
The Kármán line, named after 20th century Hungarian physicist Theodore von Kármán, is the boundary of space. From the ground to the line is between 50 and 62 miles, depending on the conclusions of the FAA, NASA and the FAI. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/where-is-the-edge-of-space-and-what-is-the-karman-line
From the air, you can only see humans at 1.6 miles. This is another reason why we build such tall buildings. It is our need to feel taller than we actually are.
Unscientifically, though impactful we have been particularly over the last 100 years, we could say above and below this distance is the extent of our influence. Though we have done damage, the measure of our impact on climate change is still in hot debate.
The point is, though we believe we have intrinsic value, the reality is, in the grand scheme of things, we do not. Relative to the universe, we are not even a blip.
We humans believe we are the greatest thing since sliced bread, actually, the greatest creation on the third rock from the sun. This is based on the past and our present. We have no idea what species will be created after we become extinct.
And yes, there will be a time when humans will become extinct. I’m quite sure the dinosaurs, to the extent that they could self-reflect, thought they would be around forever. Then came the Ice Age. And that was that for them.
What makes us think there won’t be another significant event like that which will cause us to go bye-bye? This is at the core of our romanticism. We believe that we are the chosen, by God of course, whom we constructed in our image, a superior being that is deeply connected to us, constantly watching over us, constantly monitoring our affairs, and intervening when necessary, or to answer our prayers.
Only God can judge us? Oh contraire!
We use words like awesome, fantastic, amazing, incredible, and outstanding when referring to each other. This is only relative to ourselves. The rest of existence has very different choice words for us.
I would speculate that the vegetation and animals are quite pissed off with us, as we have converted the environment into a global shopping mall, a place where we consume and dispose of what we consumed. We have invaded the habitats of all land and sea creatures, and kill them if they encroach on our properties. Our invasions have resulted in wiping out species, as we have polluted land, water and air. The earth, if it had emotions, are probably so fed up by now, but patient enough to allow things to progress, so it can have a final solution for us all.
Biologically, at the most we can grow to eight feet tall. Our bodies, if we treat it optimally, will only last 120 years. We are at about eight billion in population, and is estimated to be at 10 million by 2050. Behind our height, lifespan, and our reproductive abilities, we are finite and limited. We cannot ascend into the atmosphere without flying machines, similar such machines to travel underwater as well as to navigate space.
These are physical limitations we have. Then we impose social limitations on each other, and all the historical atrocities we have conducted therein.
We claim to be nationalistic, but only during sports and war time. Otherwise, we are broken down into states, towns, cultures, and tribes. We in fact are tribal in nature, so we build and protect for our tribes. Hollywood depicts us as having the ability to come together during times of crisis. Perhaps World Wars I and II were examples of how nations can band together to fight common enemies, but over the course of human history it pales in comparison to our tribal wars and conflicts.
If the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still ever became a reality, where an extraterrestrial like Klaatu came to Earth and warned Washington, DC that they would terminate our species if we did not live peacefully, we could not do it. Each tribe has their own agenda, and would attempt to cut side deals with Klaatu, or pretend to agree to such a deal, only to undermine it later. Then, poof we would be gone.
What a pessimist I am, huh? Some would say I am profoundly cynical. Again, such reactions points to our romanticism about ourselves. We believe in our own hype. Yes, I can talk about the wonderful things about ourselves, our evolution over the last 100,000 years, but that only clouds what I am discussing here. Besides, don’t we always do this in defense of ourselves, and in the process shirk our responsibility to be honest?
Furthermore, we always retort that we are not perfect. Well, let’s examine that statement. How perfect then, do we think we are? If we can place “we” and “perfect” in the same sentence, we must believe we have some relation to it. Perfection is a humanly constructed word for something we know nothing about. Or, perhaps more accurately, our version of perfection is relative to what we know in the natural world, which again can be construed as romantic.
Romantic knowledge? Yeah, well.
If we examined ourselves objectively, these are some of the conclusions to which we may come. The only way to truly evolve is to be honest and forthright. Otherwise, we will continue to treat our narrative as a never-ending Hollywood saga.
We fear our two deaths: the physical one and the one of memory. Fear may be the ultimate driver of our self-romanticism. Erase our mortal fear and we can learn how to die. Romance has its place, but for the sake of our species, we need to be sober, do a 12-step program, surrender our craving to be more than who we really are, and commit ourselves to being an objectively best version of ourselves.