| This should be horrifying to any sane human, but we live in a time of great insanity, and much of what ought to be criticized passes by unremarked in plain sight. > Ubuntu asserts that society, not a transcendent being, gives human beings their humanity. Let's be clear on what we're talking about here: Your humanity. Are you a human being, or aren't you? Are you a moral entity or not? In the West, we say your humanity is intrinsically, unalienably situated in your person, bestowed upon you by a higher authority even than society itself. It may at times be recognized or unrecognized by the crooked timber of human institutions, but with or without them, it exists. You are a human being even if society doesn't want you to be, for whatever reason. Compare and contrast with Ubuntu: > According to Michael Onyebuchi Eze, the core of ubuntu can best be summarised as follows: > 'A person is a person through other people' strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an ‘other’ in his or her uniqueness and difference. It is a demand for a creative intersubjective formation in which the ‘other’ becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity. This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity is co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me. Again, cutting through the obstructive bafflegab: 'A person is a person through other people' humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual The examples given are even more grotesque. > When someone behaves according to custom, a Sotho-speaking person would say “ke motho,” which means "he/she is a human." > The aspect of this that would be exemplified by a tale told (often, in private quarters) in Nguni “kushone abantu ababili ne Shangaan,” in Sepedi “go tlhokofetje batho ba babedi le leShangane,” in English (two people died and one Shangaan). In each of these examples, humanity comes from conforming to or being part of the tribe. In other words, three people died, but only one "human". Think deeply on the implications of that. Growing beyond this kind of tribal denial of humanity has always been one of the proudest achievements of the West. It's a shame to see us sinking back into it, endorsing it, even celebrating it again. See this kind of literal dehumanization pass by without much notice at all. |
Look, nobody actually reads this stuff, and if anyone reads it, they don't think about it. It's filler meant to contain words like "community," "society," and "humanity."