Hell is Humanity

Hell is...

Humanity - as in human beings collectively - is a word that has been injected with a meaning of benevolence, and the quality of being humane. But that is a lie. If we are going to be realistic about our human race, then we need to accept that humanity is hell.

Even at the most difficult of times, we still manage to act like idiots. Possibly for the first time in a long, long while, 7.8 billion people on this planet have a common "enemy", and we still can't get our shit together!

Look, for instance, at the violence that has flared up between Israel and Palestinians. Not one intelligent brain on either side has thought that perhaps bombing isn't a solution to old grievances - unless you want to decrease your population numbers, that is. Murdering your children for any cause, however just you misguidedly believe it is, solves nothing except an explosion in the birth rate.

Look at China, a country that has been accused of suppressing the cultural and religious freedoms of Uighurs - and a country that has learnt nothing from Israel. But why bother with old grievances, when you can create new ones, right? I mean, do you think that, as a nation, collecting all this new junk on top of your historical crap isn't one day going to fill up the sewers of your political gain? There is only so much pain and injury you can cause, before you realise that, in the end, the only real hurt caused is to yourself.

In that sense, Hell is a precept that drags everyone down to a common level. The lack of dignity in its working means that it's an equal opportunities employer. It is only in its deep pit that you will find a democracy of demons, Herman Melville tells us in Moby Dick. While the safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, says C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters. You'll be there before you know it.

Not that it means - even with warnings from a few members of our species - we will give a shit in the long run. Because humanity does not stand for a quality of benevolence. That meaning is erroneous. Humanity is Hell. It makes life a Hell. I don't see dolphins blowing up the ocean seabed, and more importantly, if dolphins could blow up the ocean seabed, I don't think they would. Of course Nature is violent; Nature will always be violent, but I've never seen Nature be violent for the sake of being violent.

Eventually, there is going to come a time when we can no longer block our ears or close our eyes to the wisdom of this. Instead of imbuing ourselves and subsequent generations with a fake fairytale of humanity, we need to face the stark reality of what it is to be human. It will bring clarity. For wisdom silenced is hell, whereas wisdom spoken will help build a heaven on Earth. And speaking your own personal wisdom is fucking transcendental.

Let me write down my own: I love coffee. I hate people. I know things. But my most defining character is that I hate people. And if any so-called amateur psychologists try to psychoanalyse it, I would say this: Psychoanalysis is there to work things out. And I've worked it out. This is me. So, yeah I hate people. I love coffee. And I know things.

You know, one thing I know is that people think they know other people, when they don't even know themselves. Know yourself first; this will mean sticking your ego where the sun don't shine and making yourself the villain of your story for a change. I often make myself the villain in my story, and not only because I don't give a fuck what people think.

See, another thing I know is that when people tell their own point of view, they invariably make themselves the hero of their story. In accordance with your self-given heroic status, nothing makes you more heroic in your own story (and your own blinkered eyes) than having lots of "opponents". So, you invent worthy "enemies" to make you look good. You make mountains out of molehills, so your little trip looks like a ginormous trek.

In reality, this is your downfall. Think of Don Quixote and one of his most famous stories - that of his fight with the windmills. He sees some windmills and thinks they are giants. When he rides to fight with them, he is knocked off his horse. It even created the English idiom "tilting at windmills", which means attacking imaginary enemies. But consider thinking of yourself as the villain in your story. Inconceivable as this may be to your ego and to your idea of humanity, try it.

Unfortunately, until your own humanity - and humanity as a whole - gets knocked off its horse, we will continue our battles with giants that don't exist, because we have too many self-professed heroes as it is. But don't be a villain because it means the world can no longer dump on you. Or to be merciless, or deceitful, or vengeful. Or to stop at nothing to get what you want. That's just being human. Be a villain in your own story to fill your life with heroes.

My children are the heroes in my story. Their mothers are the superheroes in my story. This is my wisdom. See yourself as the villain aiming for redemption, treat people accordingly, and watch your life fill with heroes.

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