Are We Human?

Murder, rape, vandalism, theft, riot, arson, carnage, explosion, guns, bombs, killer, death…the list goes on. What am I talking about? Well I am merely stating words that appear in your local newspaper every other day. Words that are usually associated with loss of life or some other form of tragedy. Yet, these words mean nothing to us any more. We absorb all the information the newspaper has to offer like robots without actually feeling them. The gloriously complex human brain which allows us to feel deep, meaningful concepts like compassion or empathy turn into little more than computer scanners. Scanners for words that appeal to us. Words like cricket, film, song, sex, celebrity, car, bike et al. Words that invoke emotions as deep as the puddle of water you step over while going about your daily business. What happened to us? There was a time not too long ago, when the words mentioned at the beginning of this message would have sparked immediate outrage in our minds. I can still vividly recall how my grandmother reacted to a story I was telling her, the story of Anders Behring Breivik. A look of shock, followed by a few gasps and finally a morbid shake of the head. She was lost in her thoughts by the end of our conversation. Pondering over the plight of human kind. My grandmother is from a bygone era of morals and system. Yet, that wasn’t the reason why she reacted so strongly to my story. She lives in a fledgling town, at our ancestral home, safe from a complex new world. I say safe because she is from a dying breed of human beings that are yet to be contaminated. Contaminated by the social disease that has almost all of us in an iron grip. The contagion I speak of is called de-sensitization. It is a disease that develops over time.Like a cancer, subtly boring its way into the very heart of our humanity. Until we can feel no more and lose ourselves in a world of fear,cynicism and sarcasm. Are we there yet? Not quite, but the signs are ominous. How do we fight this disease you may ask? We must awaken our minds from this drone like state it has become accustomed to and point the fingers of blame on the one thing that has knowingly or unknowingly hastened the deterioration of man- The Media. It is much more than what meets the eye.