Those Things in Humans

Those Things in Humans

Maybe it looks like I’m about to do those things that some who stand on their high pedestals of fake holiness so do. Set on the high by false humility and looking down on all of humans’ weaknesses and striking them hard with gavel. No. But I cannot help but wonder.

There is something in humans that makes them want to be first, and it is good. Yes, for the creator put it there. Yet, there is a certain perverse inclination toward subjecting others around him into a state of outright slavery. Others must serve him, and they must cower, obey the voice, and ask no question. It is the reason we have dictators all over the world, and so called leaders unwilling to serve but holding on hard to the reins of power.

It is the distorted desire to lord it over others, subject, and subdue them. To be served by them.

While every man is created with the desire to lead, this passion often gets perverted and becomes something entirely different from what the maker intends. “It shall not be so among you”  Isn’t that what Jesus says? Demonstrating what true leadership means, he washed the feet of his followers. True leadership is not a right but a responsibility to serve. Whoever truly wants to be great should first converts and be like a child.

 And then, there is the venomous and strange pleasure found in man. A wicked satisfaction derived from seeing others suffer or in trouble. When some sudden calamity befalls a neighbor, there came a feeling of strange joy washing over your soul like filthy water. Schadenfreude.

It is the reason the same man that feels bad when his friend fails, becomes miserable when the same friend seems to be ahead of him. He offers him a drink from a poisoned chalice. And he does so with a smile. Indeed not all those we see as well wishers truly wish us well.

Rejoicing with those who rejoice is a simple principle that makes a life bring out sweet savour, anything otherwise is from a foul soul. Rejoicing with a stranger should be a spontaneous human response to good news. It should be born out of unfeign love. Agape love.

And then, there is something else in human nature, it is the need to be the center of attention, the reason a false sense of contentment fills your heart when you get approval, even on social media. It is the reason you dress, pick your friends, go where you go, and even determines your choice of spouse. Whatever the world approves you do, in order to get a ‘like’ click from men.

And then, there is the jostling for the first position among men in the race of life. It is the reason you have the need to be ahead of all and compete to be foremost, forgetting that no two men on earth run the same race. It is the case of “who has the largest farm”. Embracing vanity by acquiring the best just because your neighbor got the good one, and in everyway, wanting to outdo and surpass a friend in all. It leads to many woes.

teju duru is a freelance journalist