The Ethical Treatment of Human Beings

  This is something that has been on my mind for quite awhile. It was first fueled by an Ethics class at my college. I do not take responsibility for how you feel about the piece, only that you keep an open mind. I do not always believe everything that I write and will often play "devil's advocate" in many arguments with friends. This piece is by no means short but I hope it is powerful. I hope the reader gains a sense that everything is connected. 

The Ethical Treatment of Human Beings

                I am a connector. No, not one of those funny-looking, oddly-shaped pieces in a Death Star Lego kit. I am the person who can link ideas, thoughts, and problems together. I can introduce people to each other. I can network, very well. People find that I am easy to talk to, that I am wild with ideas, and help others see the bigger picture. I demystify subjects and educate. I have been a tutor since I was sixteen years old when I was inducted into the National Honor Society. I teach music and tutor math, the subjects that hold the most mystery for the majority of our culture. I like guiding and coaching people. Yet, I have found that with all these wonderful gifts that I possess, I am one of the millions of who suck at being a compassionate person in our species.

            Yes, yes, that is a harsh assessment of the state of affairs for today. However, looking back through all the philosophers and their grandiose ideas of what it means to be human, how we treat others, and what it means to exist in the fashion that we do, not one philosophy works best. We cannot just go with Plato’s Republic and call it a day. Although, what we experience in America is built primarily on those philosophical thoughts and I will touch upon that idea throughout this diatribe. Not one philosophical ideal fits into our little mold or stereotypical situation because the situation is no longer stereotypical. We are wallowing on the edge of a new adventure. We are post-modernists.

            Our post-modernist society has absolutely no clue as to what it stands for. Despite the internet and globalization, we are still stuck on the needs of the individual and not the needs of the species. Here is where I, the connector, will show you what it all looks like. I want everyone who reads this to question every thought they ever had. I want the reader to pop their frantic little heads out of their pigeonhole and gasp. I want to see light bulbs turn on. Why do I want this? It is important to me that people understand that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That it really is not all about you, but how you treat yourself and the world that engulfs your being.

            First, and foremost, we are all made of stardust. We are at the end of the periodic table of elements with nothing new to discover. Everything after a certain point of the periodic table has to be man-made, is extremely rare, and has a half-life of mere seconds. The heavy elements are not enough to create, mimic, or regenerate life. We all have similar chemistry no matter which race or color of human. We are connected based on the very fact that we are all carbon-based life forms. So why do we keep treating our brothers and sisters like low-life? We are one in the same. Prejudice and racism are the two horrible traits of human beings I will never understand.

Prejudice goes beyond skin color. It has now pervaded into the post-modern idea of socio-economic standing. Poor people are lazy. People on food stamps are lazy. When, in actuality, there are very few true poor people and a very large class of people called the working poor.   Oh crap, I introduced class warfare into the topic which is something a lot of middle class and wealthy people are afraid to admit exists. Don’t give me the excuse that the poorest person in our country still has more than some unknown in some unknown third country has it better than they do. It’s all relative, according to Einstein. I am speaking specifically in this country. How un-American that I point out all of our faults. They exist. It is time we faced the music on this one. It divided the country during the last election and continues its deathly march into that point of no return for us.

The working poor, a class of people who work several part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. They are very rarely home to care for their own children and the children are left in the care of extended family. Most of the time, the extended family consists of an aging relative who can barely care for themselves because they never made enough money in their lifetime to receive a decent Social Security payment over retirement. That would be the Social Security the government keeps borrowing to pay for debts. It would be the Social Security that people decry should be cut. At any rate, senior citizens are outliving their source of income, an unexpected outcome of the New Deal. Roosevelt based his plan on his contemporary life expectancy which was at least ten years less than present day life expectancy.

We have expensive medications to extend the life of our family members. Take a look at any senior citizen’s pillbox. Forget that, walk into a CVS and find the largest pillbox holder near the pharmacy at the back of the store. They have one that consists of at least three rows and seven columns. Three rows for morning, noon, and night. Seven columns for every day of the week. Who needs to buy food for granny when they pop enough pills to battle heart disease, dementia, and the natural aches and pains that come with aging? No wonder seniors eat so little, with horse-sized pills and decreasing stomach capacity, not to mention the nauseating side effects from some of the medications. You don’t run your healthcare and the government does not run healthcare. The pharmaceutical companies run the healthcare in this country and they don’t give a rat’s rump how it affects your loved ones as long as you believe that it is a benefit and you are buying into it.

I digressed for a moment, back to the working poor and Plato’s The Republic. Socrates expands on the idea of what it means to be in a republic. The republic is run by the smartest, hence, wealthiest people. In his time, and in many cases today, they are the only ones who can truly afford the highest quality education in the country. They can afford to buy smaller classrooms and the most creative, intelligent teachers in the country to school their children. In other words, they have the greatest accessibility to resources. Money can buy anything you need. Are these people happy? I’m not sure. I would like to find out one of these days. Then I can happily and snottily whine about the problems that come with having money.

Then there is the vast military, the people who like to exercise and be told what to do. Ancient Greece boasted a superb naval and land force. A strong military was vastly important to the ancients because that is the only way the collective could protect their property. There are people in the republic that belong in this category as well. In the words of Rodney Dangerfield, “I’m a lover, not a fighter” and prefer the ways preached by the Dalai Lama.

But by far, the largest category in the republic, are the tradesmen and farmers. The majority of these people are the fodder of common society. According to Socrates, every person had his/her place and his/her trade. He also stated that the Republic would not work very well and could collapse if this societal system were not upheld.

I read The Republic when I was eighteen and remember these particular points because in my miniscule and grossly immature brain, it made sense. In many ways, the United States attempts to model something some Caucasian old man wrote in ancient times. Sound familiar? Or just slightly bitter? I like slightly bitter, especially from my coffee.

The new reality, in this country, is that many of these lower end tradesman’s jobs have nearly disappeared. In fact, a tradesman used to make a good living before the Walmartification of America. Yes, I made that word up and it fits. No one wants to pay for services you can look up on the internet and do for yourself. Even better, no one wants to pay money for quality services anymore. We have become Tim the Tool Time Man mini-experts in all sorts of subjects. In which case, aids the pharmaceuticals for every hospital visit you endure every time you attempt to fix your home electrical system yourself.

Speaking of Walmart and other large retailers, it has been the trend that being a full-time salesperson no longer exists. Not only have we cheapened the value of our mass-produced goods, we have cheapened the value of good, old-fashioned, hard work and meaningful human interactions. The trend in retail and service-centered American industry is to find any way you can of forcing 20+ years of service workers, who cost money in terms of healthcare and retirement, out of the industry with as little damage to your bottom line as possible. Then, we are going to replace them with part-time, non-benefit-bearing workers at minimum wage. I worked in retail for over sixteen years and I saw it coming and left as fast as my midget legs and stumpy body could carry me.

            This is the nickel and diming of America, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the recession that conveniently hit after Obama was elected? And the trillions of dollars in spending to give the wealthy tax cuts on pretty much everything on behalf of the bloody corpses of poor and middle class America? Our government is doing everything in its power to make sure that not a single one of us little lambs falls out of line in their rise to glorification. The petty arguments, the filibusters, until they finally, and at the stroke of midnight, come up with a half-hearted plan? We voted these jokesters into office?

            Our representatives will tug at our heartstrings to make sure we throw money at them so they can get elected into office. For what? To play hero? My heroes are not politicians. They are scientists, writers, and artists. People with vision. People with purpose. People with the compassion that want change in the name of betterment for the country and society. Call me an idealist, because I am. Despite my ranting, I have this tiny corner in my heart that believes that we can pull through. I believe that we can shock this nearly flat-lining beast we like to call America back to life. But let’s leave the patient on the table for a few more minutes and make sure that it is truly oxygen-deprived before we make the final attempt at reviving it.

            Let’s take a look at the evolutionary fact that our brains have doubled in mass since Homo sapiens magically appeared on the ancient timeline. I am not going to discuss God or science, creationism or evolution, because only evolution exists in my world. So this is great news, isn’t it? We managed to escape every threat and trouble, as a species, that should have wiped us clean off the face of the Earth, so far. We are an example that Darwin was right all along.

            However, as our brain matter and neural pathways became larger and more complex, so did the world that we live in. Not by the fact of nature, but by the fact of our own nature, that we are sentient beings. Our evolution has been much faster and greater than any animal to have ever roamed the planet. We have the brain matter and size to learn, to teach, to grow. We have not only shown that Darwin was right but we have also shown that we are now out of the league of Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory. Darwin admitted that he could not include humans in the theory.

            As time has marched on, many animals have shown the capability of learning and of feelings. However, the gains are much smaller due to physical limitations. Not just in what we can see but at the micro-molecular level that we have come to know and love called DNA, the information super highway contained in each being. From my Biology 101/102 class, we all, animals included, carry the same genetic codes. These genetic codes are like little light switches, some are on while others are off. Somehow, we were a very fortunate set of primates that had a special genetic switch turned on to make us who we are today.

            In other words, every time we make a grand discovery, or major invention, or giant leap of mankind, we are adding new connections and new pathways in our neural network. Without that particular gene that allows the Big Dig in our brains, we would not have advanced. We would still have a small brain mass, be shorter in stature, and no true sense of communication in the form of language or writing. Instead, every generation is becoming smarter and smarter. This is why your three year old can figure out your smartphone in under an hour and why you are still reading the manual while she is making long distance phone calls to Tibetan Monks.

            With complex network capabilities of the brain come more complex systems. This has translated into a more complex society. If we have a more complex society, why are we still trying to use the old rules and the old ways? Why are we not trying new things? Tried and true no longer works because they were built on simpler systems. Our system will no longer allow for stereotypical simplicity. We are not in Kansas anymore where everything is black or white with fifty shades of gray in between. We are colorful. We have many hues, tints, and tones. We should act like it.

            Change is hard. It is the most difficult piece of the puzzle in a paradigm shift. The shift is necessary to the on-going survival of the human race. It is time to turn everything into a case study. I don’t think it is meant to make people feel special, it is meant to make everyone aware that complex issues will persist and they will need complex solutions. Yes, to steal Burger King’s trademark, we can have it our way, within reason and not to the detriment of another person.

I believe that standardized testing in our school systems is a very poor measurement of what purpose the student serves in our society. Most people are terrible at taking tests. I know because I have test anxiety. However, this does not mean that I cannot communicate effectively or explain what I have learned. I just have supreme difficulty when it comes to taking a test. Outside of school purposes, when have you taken a standardized test? Standardized tests are part of the old way of doing things trying to find an application in post-modern society.

And it is failing. It is failing our teachers in terms of their creativity and application of the knowledge that they paid for in college in which they are not allowed to use in public schools. It is failing the parents in terms of pigeon-holing their child and being told they are not academically capable when each child can learn and sometimes does not do it at the same rate our so-called standards tell us is supposed to be “normal.” Most of all, it is failing our society in terms of workforce quality and leadership potential.

We cannot and should not boil everything down to a few pieces of paper in a file folder. Our society is not that simple anymore. Look at our electronics. 50 years ago, a computer tied up a whole room. Today, our computers are located on iPads and iPods and anything else we can add an “i” in front of. We cannot give out labels like we give out free advice. What works for you may be completely wrong for someone else.

In order to ethically treat each other, properly, we have to stop looking at each other like stick figures. We are going to have to bend the rules to the point that they break. When they break, we will have to study where the stress fracture began and ended. We have to interlock complex systems, leave no stone unturned, and create new paradigms that benefit us, our children, and the future. We should look back in time and history for appreciation that we were able to make that quantum leap from cavemen to tax accountants. We should not deny each other the basic right to happiness, health, and the pursuit of personal truth. You know it and I know it. Teach it and preach it with the only gift ever abided to us for our complexity, love.