Quo vadis, humans?

Rhona Canoy

SO… As soon as reports surfaced that Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute had been killed in battle, it wasn’t long before graphic photographs of them found its way to social media. Which then led to unpleasant sights on my Facebook newsfeed. No, this week’s column is not about the war on terrorism. It’s not about how long it took. It’s not about how much longer there will be fighting in Marawi. It’s about our humanity.

After posting a notice that I would unfriend anyone who posted gory pictures of dead people, I was greatly surprised at the types of responses I got. And it led me to revisit something which I had written about before. Actually, I was and am distressed not just by pictures of dead terrorists, but by the cavalier attitude we seem to have acquired regarding death, of blood and violence. And, by the way, I have since terminated a lot of Facebook friendships.

The great divide between those who claim to fight for the sanctity of human life and justice and those who espouse violence as a form of justice sometimes seems imaginary. I was  surprised by the sentiments of a friend who said Maute and Isnilon should not only have been shot but chopped up for all the evil that they inflicted. It makes me wonder how deeply we regard the disposability of life if it is justifiable to us.

Most of all, we seem to be thoughtless regarding the impact of these images and opinions on our youth. We complain about how people think nothing of allegations of extra-judicial killings. Please take it one big step further. All killings and/or accidental deaths. We are inundated by these, and we seem to have accepted this as the new normal. Have you seen the news? That’s all there is on the news. Pictures of dead people, whether by bullet wound or vehicular carnage. Or multiple stabbings. Or clubbed and beated to death. And we don’t bat an eyelash. Normal. If we were to remove all of these from the news, there would be two minutes of weather and the Christmas countdown.

Social media is no better. We unthinkingly friend minors, forgetting that what we post appears on their newsfeeds. Pictures of dead people, videos of women getting beat up by police officers. Reports of people shooting at each other. And that’s just for starters. No censor, no filter. Validation of how violence is okay. Coupled with violent language, what else is the new normal supposed to be?

Parents fret that their children are disrespectful, at the very least. What else are they supposed to be if not that? The Internet has given them a window, panoramic and without curtains. Sadly, these young people have access to tons of information and data but have not been taught how to process and evaluate it. The crowds that instantaneously gather at an accident site is proof of that. You will see more smartphones being used to take pictures for uploading than being used to call an ambulance. You will see more people elbowing their way to the front of the line for better photo ops than bending over the victims to see if they can be of help.

We are getting inured and jaded. We are getting sensationalistic rather than compassionate. We are becoming hangmen rather than juries. It is easy to understand how we can fall into this mindset quickly. After all, killing is built into our system, hardwired even. It is, after all, the ultimate survival skill. Kill or be killed. But that is the animal’s way, isn’t it? And we pride ourselves as humans to be better than the animals.

With all my heart, I believe that technology has provided much of the impetus. The 24-hour nonstop availability of stimuli is resulting in a moral/ethical overload leading to shutdown. People who rant and wave their fists in the air against EJKs are the self-same people who will unleash verbal Armageddon against those they perceive to be blamed for the killings. So aren’t they then just as violently insensitive? Aggression has become a way of life. An acceptable way of life. It bothers me to imagine how much worse it can (and probably will) get.

Is it time to redefine our humanity? Or am I the only one alarmed?