— Adithya Beera
It’s apparent that we humans are becoming more progressive by the day. Increasingly, people believe that no one should be discriminated against based on color, race, gender and the like. Breakthroughs in science and widespread education taught us that there is nothing stopping anyone from becoming the person they want to be: that an African American can be President of arguably the most powerful country or that an ALS patient can become one of the most renowned contemporary scientists. But this scientific-liberal movement is yet to reach its zenith: recognising that it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter who one is.
Scientists and those who believe in ‘science’ are increasingly confident that humans are, beneath all the layers of material and emotional facades, mere lumps of biochemical reactions. That you and I are essentially complex biological systems interacting with the external world using two features: our physical extensions and mental structures. But how did we get each of our unique physical and mental attributes in the first place?
Even before one is born, biology influences each of our physical and mental aspects. After birth, the personal philosophy we pick up, and in consequence all our actions, are influenced by the socio-economic, geographical, cultural and political community we are born into. However, the degree to which one may infuse his own set of values into popular ideas is dependent on his mental tendencies, which are not self determined since a person has only two types of influences: the internal world (one’s biology) and the external world (one’s surroundings). Because both these influences are outside anyone’s control, nobody chooses to be anything. Therefore, no one can be judged for what one is, was, or will be.
Hence, allowing only the so-called bright and hard-working students into college is akin to discriminating against a person’s skin colour or gender. People born blind and those born with mental structures that foster criminal tendencies are siblings of the same tragedy: the genetic lottery.
Because a person determines nothing, he should not be discriminated against anything — from IQ to EQ and morality. Nobody must be commended or vilified for anything that they are or have become. True justice is absolute equality. Because everyone is equal, every way of living is equally valid as it is ultimately a function of what a person is, which is, of course, something out of one’s control.
So, what do we do? Afterall, humans are driven by an urge to progress. However, having something desirable is a necessary prerequisite for progress as progress is essentially movement towards some better ideals or improved material affluence. But deeming anything desirable will necessarily deem everything else inferior. Hence, true justice renders any value system vile.
Even moving towards a better world with greater material wealth and technology in the current capitalistic system is evil. This follows from the fact that the system feeds off a hierarchy of intellect which causes immediate losses to those who happen to be less competent in the existing system which incentivises a particular strain of characteristics. Maybe we could choose to condone this hypocrisy temporarily and continue this tyranny until we are technologically capable of ensuring that every child is born the same. But doing so would force us to select a set of characteristics for the common progeny of humans. Unfortunately, a person cannot be both white and black or obedient and rebellious and we would be forced to choose — which is evil. One might say then, ‘do nothing’. But inaction is also a conscious decision to continue the injustice of the lucky against the unlucky in the present system.
In that case, we must exist only to survive sans any concept of justice. Essentially evolve backwards to cancel out all our differences. But how far back? Chimpanzees have hierarchies built on physical and mental abilities, and even bower birds have beauty standards. Ideally, we must be reduced to the most basic, non-conscious entities — to single-celled beings — which is impractical. If that’s the case, is there any rationale for humans to exist? Perhaps the solution is not to alter the problem but to purge it — to let Sapiens end.
Edited by Anoushka Agastya
Design by Alphin Tom
Article 19 