Life lesson

... that's taken a lifetime to digest.

I was an anthropology student in college. I recall something from one of the courses and it has crept into my thinking now and then throughout my life. It was a little triplet:

Each man is like all other men
Each man is like some other men
No man is like any other man

The original purpose of the triplet was to help students remember the distinctions between the various social sciences.

Each man is like all other men

outlined the basis of anthropology. It focused on our common humanity and that fact that who ever we are and where ever we come from, there is a set of universal issues that we all confront as human beings - food, clothing, shelter, our place in the universe, our reason for existing ... those kinds of things. Who ever we are, where ever we come from, we must deal with those universals.

How groups of us deal with those issues brings us to the second line of the triplet:

Each man is like some other men

This is the basis of sociology, the study of groups of people and how they deal with those issues, how we fit into a group, a clan, a service club, a political party or a nation.

The last line:

No man is like any other man

you've probably guessed by now is the underscore of psychology, who we are as individuals.

Each of the three lines represents a truth and each truth functions simultaneously with the other two lines.

I've come to believe over the years that there may be more to it than that. I am coming to believe the degree to which we are healthy is the degree to which those three things are able to function within an individual without getting in the way of each other.

I am seeing the development in this country (others as well) of a set of circumstances where people are abandoning their sense of humanity in favor of either their sense of self or their loyalty to their social group (party, nation, club, whatever).

There are precedents, situations where either individuality or collectivism has been conducted at the expense of humanity. Germany in the 1930s and 1940s saw the rise of the group. In the case of Germany, it was the rise of the Nazi party at the expense of a sense of humanity. The demonization of various groups by the collective was the abdication of a whole people's sense of humanity. That loss of a sense of humanity is, I believe, a major factor in the perpetration of the Holocaust.

We see that loss of a sense of humanity in religious causes. Fundamentalist and Sectarian Islam allows for the most unspeakable acts against fellow human beings. (the favorite weapon of torture among Sectarian Iraqis is reported to be the electric drill.)

We must be careful not to loose our sense of humanity. I see it in some of the attitudes some people in this country hold with regard to "illegal aliens". I see it in the demonization of Muslims in the west.

The frequency and intensity of "group belonging" is taking hold is frightening. Loosing our sense of humanity will be our downfall.