What Makes us Human?

Very often I listen to some people or commercial ads saying something which go on the lines of: “Our craziness makes us human. Being unreasonable and nonsensical makes us human.” 

I don't think craziness makes us human. On the contrary, I think being sensible makes us human. Craziness is all over the animal world. We have intellect; it makes us sensible; and that makes us human. I don’t think being unreasonable makes us human. On the contrary, I think being reasonable makes us human. If we see a poor man, it is reasonable to help him; it is unreasonable and crazy to steal from his begging bowl (this scene I am taking from some movies where they steal from beggar’s bowl and we all laugh at them for this funny act).

Why would people want to do things which are unreasonable and nonsensical? Being reasonable is what is expected from learned men. Being sensible is what is expected of learned men. Any rabbit can be unreasonable. Why dogs chase their tails? Why monkeys keep jump trees without purpose? Those are unreasonable and crazy. Only humans can be reasonable and I think being “not crazy” is what makes us humans.

I think most of our positions these days can be traced to some fashion statements. Most prominent one is: "You have one life; why so serious?" The purpose of this message is to make us do impulse buying. "Being crazy is what makes you!!!" is the theme of so many movies and ads. So we think being crazy (which means not behaving like society expects us to) is cool and it makes us socially popular. Like the movie Rock Star's lead Ranveer who ignored all social norms and in the end killed his lady-love by his reckless lovemaking. Glamorizing unreasonable and crazy behaviors are just fashionable positions and I don't see much merit in these. These positions can only be laughed about, but our society can’t be sustained if everyone starts becoming as crazy and unreasonable as they want us to become.

When I say this, I am not proposing a boring mechanical approach towards all things. I am only pointing towards sensible behavior. In other words, I don’t “being boring”, or “being mechanical” are opposites of “being crazy” but the opposites are “being sensible” and “being reasonable”.

Most of the time these slogans are promoted by marketers who want to change us. They don’t want to see us as conservative customers who would apply our mind before doing anything. As I said, they want us to act on our impulse and indulge in impulse buying. In short: they want our money. Many leaders and opinion makers would also talk about “being crazy” as a cool thing to do, but they are just acting populist when they say so. In the end, society and human civilization is made by sensible and reasonable people. Crazy and unreasonable lot, be it from humans or animal world are only to be enjoyed and forgotten.