To Identify Myself

"What does it mean to be human"? Some would say that question has plagued humanity since the beginning of our existence. I would respectfully disagree. I would consider it a question humanity cannot fully comprehend, and therefore cannot be answered by humans. No other creature or being may answer this question for us, and we cannot answer such a broad and inconceivable question. I believe there are many parts of the human experience. In terms of time, to be human is to reflect, act, and predict. In terms of thinking, to be human is to analyze and to act on impulse. While the comparisons are as endless as the answers to this question, one way to consider an aspect of humanity is to have been, be, and will be both yin and yang, opposites that complete one another. To be human is to be the manifestation of an oxymoron, and all questions involve human nature are sure to be as enigmatic as the beings that they discuss.

"To be a man" is a completely subjective phrase. Immediately, upon hearing this question, I thought to answer with oversight, under analysis, aggression, and powerful. However, the question is not what are some defining characteristics of young males, but what it means to be a man. The only way for any individual to answer this question is for any individual who identifies as a man to explain what that question means to them. It would not be plausible to ask this question to any individual who identifies as female, as that individual has no bearing on this question. Even the question itself may be perceived and number of ways. It might ask what are the defining characteristics of being a man, what is it like to be a man, and even what values a man should hold to be confident in establishing the identity of a man. After careful thought, I myself consider the question to be the last of those options, and I would have to respond by saying that to be a man is to be honorable, respectful, and reliable. Of course, I only answer as such because to answer this question, as a young man, is to describe who I should aspire to be, as encouraged by personal beliefs.

I could not possibly answer what it means to be a woman. I do not identify myself as a woman, and therefore cannot possible imagine how to answer for one. I may make the same speculation as above, that there are many ways to answer the question and the answer itself depends on the values of the individual answering. To attempt to claim to be able to identify members of the opposite sex is beyond my ability  comprehend, as it is the other side of the coin, the twin half of the oxymoron that is humanity.

"To be an Artist" is, in essence, to be able to express one's emotions or a message through a medium. There are, of course many kinds of artists, many different mediums, and various ways to present the artwork itself, the presentation itself possibly influencing the way an individual interprets the art. However, as stated in a comparison between multiple interviews of artists, many artists seek to send a message of a sort through the work that is produced. A more subtle part of an artist's identity is to be able to identify with, or make comparisons to, pieces of artwork not composed by the artist in question. To be an artist is to be able to communicate, and to understand emotion that is not explained through human contact.

Humanity, being largely composed of two primary categories, can be split into the categories of fact and faith, otherwise considered science and belief. Belief is a uniquely human characteristic in that it begets imaginative thinking and motivation beyond what a human lacking a reason to act woul be able to muster. However, if science s completely rejected, then it also begets another intrinsic trait of humanity: ignorance. Science is opposite, yet comparable. It deals in hard facts, undeniable constants that eliminate ignorance. However, "our insistence on cognitive knowledge may have already robbed us of some of our capacity for being human."Science consumes faith and imaginative perception of the surrounding world and places knowledge in its place, in essence turning human beings into machines.

Overall, there is nothing that might be able to accomplish "achieving or regaining our full humanity". There is no way to determine what our full potential as humans is, as evolution might take away our identity as humans in several million years, and it is in the nature of humans is to question. Science is an important part of human nature, yet it eats away at faith. Faith is an irreplaceable quality of humanity, yet it shuns science. To no longer question the world around us, or indeed ourselves, is to stagnate and regress as humans, but to question the world too much could lead to an explosive growth of science that would crush human imagination and strip the world of its empathy. There is no way to fully achieve humanity, and to attempt to regain it would cause as much humanity that is regained to be lost. The imperfection of humans is the pinnacle of humanity, and the latter evolves as we do.