A Short Treatise on Human Nature...(Part 1)

Well...that's what I thought I was writing anyway, when I was a 19 year old trying to figure life out...Still trying that, mind you :-)

Still, I feel it reads rather well...so here goes...

A Short Treatise on Human Nature

It really is strange that out of the blue I should feel like writing something concerning this living creature called a human being. Well, I guess such a sudden impulse occurs to everyone in his or her life, but is rarely put down on paper.

This question has racked me throughout the various stages of my development as a human (though, of course in different forms and intensities) What is a human being? Where do we come from, et al. As a child grows, it has been seen that these questions gradually cease to emanate from his lips. Does that mean his queries have been satisfactorily answered or does it imply a loss in his curiosity?

I think, a child gradually learns to accept his existence as a fact of nature and as gradually other seemingly important things regarding existence collide head on with his psyche, the basic questions take a backseat, so much so that later on in life, the basic existence of these questions is not acknowledged by us.

If we attempt to draw an objective inference, we do, to an alarming extent come to a rather strange possibility. Don’t u think, what happened to that child’s queries, is exactly what is happening to all people, at every stage of life and at all times. Don’t u think that man is always worrying more about the next problem, which invariably takes precedence over the problem at hand? This I think has made mans life, a string of unanswered questions. Why is this so? (if at all, what I say is true). The “if” that I have used in parenthesis is there to remind the reader that I am not attempting to change anyone’s ideology or thinking; but on the contrary, this is I believe a sincere effort (and a conscious one) on my part to understand the strangeness of us humans. I am thus trying to find as many enigmas as possible therein and a possible explanation as per my thinking.

Continuing with the rather delicate question/analogy I posed (to myself) on the previous page, one can’t but help suspect that this is inextricably linked with human nature. But, hold it! Aren’t we a bit ahead of ourselves in our little discussion? We haven’t yet justified the comparison or, if I may insist, the conclusion we come to, on the previous page.

All of us would agree that man ( I would like to apologise for the apparently chauvinistic use of “man” in my discussion; but rest assured, fair ones, I am referring to both sides of human coin. I appear chauvinistic because of convention; reasons of which are debatable, but that of course is another story!) is arguably a rather intelligent(?) and civilised(?) specimen of the living species. But despite the surface qualities (again coined by man) of being rational and “thinking “, we more often than not tend to bely this rather ego satisfying reputation we have given ourselves. History, as they say, is nothing but the fossilised face of time. It ”moves” without “moving”. So quite clearly it is reliable reference chart that can be used by us.

If we analyse mans progress over the ages, we come across innumerable incidents where man has contradictions himself rather than blatantly. Where man has preached peace, at our place, we have advocated war at another. Where he has preached truth, he has also deceived; it goes on and on. Why? Why is it that history is lined with instances where man has annihilated man, and again why, at the same time, has he been the epitome of compassion and peace? Our discussion, as we can very well see, has taken a ‘U’ turn and everything has again boiled down to, analysis of human nature.

Concluding part next week...

Interesting views for a 19 year old...and not entirely irrelevant in today's world either...

Cheers,
Babumoshai aka Roop Kumar Bhadury

Access this blog @ http://www.babumoshai.com