What Happened to Humanity?

The other day, while checking Facebook, I stumbled upon a piece of writing by the Danish actor Pilou Asbæk. He has been vocal about the Danish government's lack of willingness to bring back the children of mothers that joined ISIS and are to be prosecuted for terrorism and treason (I suppose). As he points out, the children are not to blame. Children are not responsible for the mistakes of their parents and as they are Danish citizens, they should be treated as such (in theory at least). 

His writing made me think about the flaws of humanity in whole. I am not talking about making one mistake or going against human nature. Quite the contrary. Humans make mistakes. But what we are witnessing now - how this world is developing does not match with being human. Now, of course, this is only my perspective. I am by no means an expert in what it means to be human, but I do believe in our potential to be and do good.

I do believe that most of us want the best for others. Most of us are capable of loving. Most of us care about people in need. Most of us, that is. But what about the rest?

I think that they do care, but they are limited in their ability to feel empathy. They think in terms of which group they belong to. So maybe they do care - as long as the ones they are going to help belong to a similar social group as themselves. It could be in terms of skin colour or in terms of wealth. Whatever the group one feels the most empathy towards, this way of being human is not good for humanity. I am no saint in the matter, but at least I am aware of my own blind spots and faults as a human. 

Only caring about some groups creates a division between people. An us versus them mentality. It neglects the simple truth of the world: WE ARE ALL HUMAN.

There are many differences between us, but there are way more similarities. We hurt. We love. We live. Humanity still exists, but as long as our empathy stays limited, humanity stays limited. Reaching our potential of love and compassion as a species takes a lot of work, but it is not impossible. Our shared stories in being human will eventually have to manifest itself in the world. Everywhere people are working hard to build bridges instead of walls.