Cruelty, Humanity's Burden for Time Immemorial.

Cruelty is not a cardinal sin but it deserves to be one. We are cruel to those weaker than us, those without a voice, those we don’t consider as worth thinking of. As a species, I think we’re biologically tuned to be cruel. It's become so ingrained that most wouldn't even blink an eye at what they do.

Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and an unending amount of suffering inflicted by humans on everything else. We claim to have evolved into modern sensibilities but cruelty still persists. The methods may have changed but the final outcome remains the same.

In both small and large acts, cruelty continues to inflict immense suffering on people, animals, our planet and when we venture out into space, we will take it with us. We can’t figure out how to leave it behind; we can’t figure out what leads us to be cruel.

Its hard to acknowledge or write this down and I feel unsteady and disturbed when doing it. Just thinking about the thousands of years of what we have endured and inflicted is a very difficult thing to come to terms with. And I don’t want to come to terms with it.

Some examples of the top off my head,

1. Hundreds of years of slavery and inhuman treatment of ‘colored’ individuals. Treated worse than farm animals, kept in cages. Denied medical treatments, thrown into pits when of no further use.

2. Horrifying acts of torture and devices or methods of torture invented to inflict maximum pain and suffering. Like the bamboo plant method. Do not google this if you like your sanity.

3. Countless wars across thousands of years with the pillaging, raping and barbaric acts committed upon the losing side. The side whose only crime at times was to disagree with the stronger opponent.

4. Genocides, religious wars and the doctrine of “they’re different” used as causes to single out people and then commit brutal acts upon them in the name of some fucking god.

5. Denying proper medical care for suffering individuals because of money, resources or the governments simply not giving too many fucks. Abandoning people as they get old and are unable to contribute to society.

6. Denying time off from work to attend funerals of loved ones, take care of family in need or simply believe that an employee is a bought and paid slave to do with as you wish.

7. Sexual or mental harassment of women in every day life, treated as objects to fuck and claim an achievement from; unable to even comprehend them as living, breathing, feeling, humans.

8. Serial killers, gangs, crime syndicates trafficking humans, selling them as commodities, peddling drugs that destroy the humanity of people.

9. The overwhelming cruelty of police; those whom we look up to as our defenders, committing acts with the power of their resources behind them and covering them up to escape the judgement of laws.

I could keep going on, there is so much more. This just covers some things done to humans; animals and nature have suffered more at our hands.

When, and if, we reach a stage of humanity where we can finally put an end to this, how do we reconcile the thousands of years and uncounted billions who have suffered for us to reach here? Will there ever be justice for them? What will it look like?

We are the inheritors of crimes that can never be paid for. No matter how much we whitewash our history, those crimes will forever stain everything we touch. Everything that comes after has been paid in blood, suffering and the curses of people forgotten. We can never transcend leaving behind our past as a mess.

All we can do is try and stop as much cruelty as possible.