What makes Human a Human

What makes human a human is the question that pondered my mind for a long time. A friend of mine after reading the Sapiens, recommended by various great personalities told that Fiction is one factor that makes Homo Sapiens unique from the rest of the species. Being an idiot who takes aeons to complete a book found it tough to understand, also is it the only thing that makes us unique was the question that seeded in my mind. That seed germinated quite quickly and just like any plan which searches for the sunlight to grow further the seed moved towards the available light to flourish. During the travel to find the sunlight or in simpler terms, during the travel to find the answer to the question I stumbled upon many factors.

As you know, the human mind will not stop until it gets an answer that satisfies its ego. You need to quench the thirst of your mind and your ego. The funny part here is that you never know if its one and the same. So in the travel to satisfy the ego accidentally I stumbled upon a factor that made me think twice about my perception towards many things. As Arthur Conan Doyle says, you need to wait for the solution to present itself, I waited and the solution presented by itself. The answer was hiding in the plain sight. Before coming directly to the answer I would like to discuss few trigger incidents and recent observations of mine.

Last week Star Vijay Channel started a reality show called Big Boss, which is based on the UK reality show Big Brother. The show is hosted by the Tamil actor Kamal Hassan. As usual, when an actor has involved it is inevitable not to avoid prejudices. As soon the initial episode aired which introduced us to contestants, my timeline was flooded with memes mocking at the choice of Actor Kamal Hassan to take part in the show as an Anchor. As the show progressed the memes were shifted from the Anchor to the contestants.

There were two types of memes, videos and support statuses spread. One was supporting a contestant for the sake of prejudiced reason, another was hatred for a particular contestant for another prejudiced reason. Apart from these a hell lot of statuses stating that this is a scripted show (obviously isn’t it ?) and we all are wasting the time by watching it. Some statuses went to an extent of criticising the dramatic attitude of some contestants which even the watchers might not have noticed (too keen to observe and must have spent a lot of time noticing it). So aren’t they keen on watching the show more than the watchers? Some of the people who shared the memes are the same ones who were praising Rock as people’s champion. They are the same people who were showed their loyalty for Chennai Super Kings and roared Korbo Lorbo Jeet ke for KKR. It wouldn’t be fair if I fail to mention the group who supports the Anchor at this situation too. They are the people who can find 1000 meanings, symbolism and subtexts which even Carl Jung struggled to find.

As I was observing all these, I casually mentioned to my friend that we are too much interested in other lives that are the reason for increasing viewership for the show. I went on lecture what is behind these shows and why we shouldn’t wake the social animal inside us who is keen on exploring and understanding the life and characteristics of other Homo sapiens. As friends speak, the topic drifts and we started discussing what one of our friends should have done instead of something he did and we were discussing exclusively about the activities, decisions, choices, likes and dislikes of a dear friend. Then it hit me hard that I was being a hypocrite who said not to show interest in other’s lives and discussing in detail about an individual’s life choices. Yes, I said it loud, hypocrisy is what makes humans a human. Everybody is a hypocrite in a way and that makes us a human. On a concluding note, I would like to share a meme for the thought that creeped in my mind due to observing a bunch of meme.