By
Obododimma Oha
I am not writing as an expert psychologist. I am just expressing my worry that there is an upsurge in the lack of feeling and serious disrespect for human life in many societies engaged in violence. Fellow human beings are killed and burnt and this means nothing to bystanders cheering and laughing. An elderly person with a walking stick trips and falls, but observers only see that as a joke and hardly help. My unprofessional mind tells me that something may be wrong. It could be the case that that society is sick and urgently needs a therapy, and is not merely a page straight out of fiction. One encounters this growing disrespect for human life everyday. And the worst is that some people see it as normal. So, don't blame me for going to the standing mirror to check if I have grown horns overnight. Maybe one has horns and has visited from another galaxy.
The mass killings and mass burials appear to be a mere performance to be enjoyed, reminding one about the very bizarre gladiatorial shows of Rome. The cutting of human heads and butchering of the human beef do not shock. These are " normal" in a land that devours its inhabitants.
After slaughtering human beings, the killers not only beat their chests and are ready to do it again, but can still eat meat. They are heroes and are celebrated. Is the human not becoming beastly and only suitable for the jungle?
Other beasts hardly eat their kind. They would rather care for or protect their kind. It is as if the other is for them, the other of the same kind is me. What happens to the other in my kind happens to me or can happen to me. So, in protecting the other of my kind, I protect myself.
Another thing is that some, if not many, kill to protect themselves or because they want to eat. Human beings kill their own kind, not because they want to eat, except for some cannibalistic groups. In other words, it is humans that are aggressive, antagonistic, domineering, selfish, and problematic.
Other beasts may fight over scarce resources - - food, females, routes, and dwelling places. But these are just for a while. Humans even force them to fight and do enjoy this as sports or collect rewards from victories! Wicked!
Disease and death are the cheap rewards for the hostile human. The hostile human even turns disease into a weapon and hopes that death would claim those they don't like, forgetting that all humans are going there. All flesh would decay and join the earth. No mortal can be immortal, to use a tautology. As the Igbo would say: "Igwe niile ga-eje n'ụzụ" (All bicycles will visit the blacksmith).
When I hear atrocity stories about pregnant women and children slaughtered in their sleep and see horrible photographs of this mayhem on social media, I shiver and ask myself what the human being has become. To call them "animals" is to insult these so-called lower creatures.
Human beings could be very arrogant, even refusing to observe creation carefully and to learn. No wonder they have been perishing and have been making perishing their destination.
The disrespect for human life amounts to a violation of one human right or the the other. Not just the simple expressions of humanity, but even the handling of the human being believed to be within our power. Tyranny. Corruption. Deprivations. Etc. Only because we think that we possess many heads while those being oppressed possess only one!
The hostile human has no respect for human life. You can ask the social psychologist, Sam Keen. Kill and maim, these are what the hostile human preaches. The hostile human knows nothing but subjugation.
The hostile human is a killer.
The hostile human is a hater.
The hostile human would make you dislike your humanity.
The hostile human is crude.
The hostile human retreats to the forest while other humans move toward the road.
The hostile human thinks more of yesterday.
The hostile human has no respect for humanity.
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