Human Rationality, Where Can I Find It?

I once knew a place

Born out of a great sigh

A balloon of blues and greens

Dancing in an endless night

A place of riches in heights and depths

With more colours than the eye could see

And more melodies than the ear could hear

All was part of one big cycle

Short or tall it did not matter

Without the first there was no latter

Every choice summed up to form the present

Make the right ones

And the future would be pleasant

-

I live in a world as part of a species…

Homo sapiens, rational men, we call ourselves, but are we really? We are the only species on earth that has a conscious of its actions and that can reflect upon them, but what good does this knowledge do us if we do not know how to use it? Every living thing on earth, whether it’s a plant or an animal, aims for survival of its race. Supposedly, so do we, but our actions speak differently. You tell me, is it rational to value money more than anything? Is it rational to artificially divide up a world that is interconnected? And is it rational to act as if we are superior to everything while we are just as dependent as everything as anything else?

There are 870 million people on earth going to bed hungry every day¹. This is because they lack money, not because the human race lacks resources. Actually, it’s quite the contrary, we produce such a big amount of food that we can afford to waste up to 50% of the food produced for human consumption²; this means that we could feed all the hungry and still have food left to waste. But yes, it is much more rational to pay for your food and if you can’t, well, you probably deserve to die. There are people not being treated for diseases that can be cured, just because they cannot pay their hospital bills. I know kids that want to go to university and might never do so, because they don’t have enough money to pay for their education. People lose their houses exactly for the same reason and we still consider ourselves rational? In pursuit of money we are destroying what is really important. We are depleting our resources, just because more money is earned when we consume, waste and continue consuming. Moreover, we are polluting the planet, not due to the fact that we lack knowledge, but because we find it is too expensive to take care of it. Money plays such an important role in modern society that we tend to forget the true value of things.

It is well known that the earth we live on is one ecosystem in which everything is interconnected, but yet we still continue to divide up land artificially. What good does it bring us to have different morals and laws across the planet? Isn’t it well known that clean air, water and food are most important for our survival and that your actions in the south influence me in the north as well? Since we are all so dependent of the earth’s resources and of each other, what gives you more right to live than me? How come it is possible that a country can deny people from crossing a border just because of their nationality? Aren’t we all human? For our race to survive and develop itself we need to do it all together, not just because it is morally right, but because the planet we live on is obliging us to. And if we are as rational as we claim to be aren’t we then supposed to reflect on our actions in order to have more knowledge in the future? And what good is knowledge if we decide not to use it?

I live in a world, which I do not understand.

But I keep hoping for it to become more rational.

-

I once knew a place

Where the wrong paths were taken

Where all was connected

And division man made

Where the lifeless were loved

And the living forgotten

Where everybody was born equal

But none were given the same chances

Where the promise of a better afterlife prevailed

Allowing suppression in the present day

Where symptoms were treated

But causes never cured

Where frugality was needed

But squander was common

Where knowledge was abundant

But use of it lacked

I once knew a place

Where we judged

But failed to act

I once knew a place

But that place

It is no more

References

¹Food and Agricultural Organisation. (2012). The State of Food Insecurity in The World

2012. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/infographics/pdf/FAO-infographic-SOFI-2012-en.pdf

²Parfitt, J., Barthel, M., & Macnaughton, S. (2010). Food Waste Within Food Supply

Chains: Quantification and potential for change to 2050. Biological Sciences, 365(1554), 3065-3068.