What defines nature is that all living beings are fully dedicated to being what they are. For example, a cucumber seed is very dedicated to growing into a big cucumber plant and making a lot of new cucumbers. Same with grapes. A grapevine will do everything in its power to grow and make more grapes. A tree is dedicated to being a tree and being part of the forest. A cactus can dry out in the desert for years but as soon as it starts to rain it grabs its chance and makes the most beautiful flowers. Slowly, slowly it grows into a giant cactus. It is incredibly patient. It can live up until 300 years and become more than twelve meters high, while having only one goal: being the best cactus possible.
Same with animals. A cat is dedicated to being a cat, every second of its nine lives. Everything it does is serving its catlike nature. A lion is dedicated to being a lion, a bird is dedicated to being a bird, an ant is dedicated to being an ant. Everything in nature has its place and function. There is no doubt, no hesitation in nature. However, there is one exception: us.

Humans want to serve

You can look at humans and wonder: what are we truly dedicated to? If you look closely, you might observe that many people are dedicated to serving. People seem to be wired to serve and they look for a leader to tell them how to serve. They don’t seem to have any preference in who or what to serve. They can serve more or less any ideology or boss. It can be Mussolini or Gandhi. It can be the Kardashians or the pope. They can serve judaism but antisemitism as well, with just as much passion, conviction and vigour. They can serve the democrats, the republicans, science, Buddha, Allah or Christ. They are even willing to serve nazism or satanism, if someone tells them to. It doesn’t matter which agenda they are used for, people seem to serve it happily.

Why humans need to be told what to be dedicated to? Why they seem to have no clue why they are here and are completely at a loss about who they are and what they should do, if they are not being told who to be and what to do? Isn’t that strange? You see that nowhere else in nature. Imagine a confused tomato plant not remembering how to make tomatoes, a depressed grapevine wondering what to do with its life, a tree committing suicide because it can’t fly. Doesn’t happen.

Humans are extremely gullible

Underneath the enormous scope of what we are willing to serve, is another typical human characteristic, which is gullibility. Animals and plants are not gullible. They are flexible and adaptive, but not gullible. Imagine telling a cat to behave like a dog, or an apple tree to make pears this year. Not possible. You can’t tell a cucumber to be a tomato either. You can’t tell a lion to be a lamb. You can’t tell a tree to be a bird. You can’t tell a rose to be a tulip. Nature just doesn’t work like that – but we do.

Unlike everything else in the natural kingdom, humans are undefined, insecure, gullible, volatile, unreliable and unpredictable creatures without a mind of their own. They are just looking for something to copy, a master who tells them what is true and what is not true, who tells them what their purpose in life is.

Once they have received their instructions – make a lot of baby’s, be a good father, provide for the family, be a good mother, keep the house clean, be a decent citizen, take your shots, be a hard worker, don’t complain, be an obedient office clerk, pay your taxes, be a faithful believer in some kind of religion or political ideology, do your prayers – then they are very dedicated to that.

If you tell the people they have to procreate because some God said that, they go ahead and procreate until they fall over. If you tell them to stop, they all carry condoms in their wallet. If you tell them they have to work until they are 65 for a master, doing ridiculous and meaningless work, they do it whistling and feeling very important. If you tell them to betray their neighbour, they do it, feeling very justified. If you tell them money is the most important thing in the world and must be prioritized above all else, they go for it. Yeah, man! If you tell them they have to beat their children in order to discipline them, they obey without hesitation. If you tell them they have to send their sons to war, they send them off and even feel proud about it. When you tell them they have to lock up, cover or mutilate their daughters, they do so just as merrily.

Humans have the blues and capoeira

So, is that it? Are humans only dedicated to serving? If that is so, we are indeed a slave species. And yes, it’s true that most people seem to be most at ease and happiest if they follow a master, whether it be a guru, a priest, a political figure or a movie star. Yet, ‘slave species’ might not be the right definition here, because many slaves really don’t want to be slaves and have a deep yearning to be unchained. That’s how we got the blues and capoeira. And besides that, a lot of humans would really enjoy being a slave owner as well and are really good at it. We’ve seen that time after time in different chapters of human history. So, what are we then? Slaves, or something else?

It is said that we have descended from monkeys, but monkeys will defend their right to be monkeys to the death. You can’t force them to mate – or not mate, for that matter – or to not eat or move, or to give up their children and have them raised by someone else. They would fight to the death to defend their right to be who they are – just like all other animals, except us. It’s impossible to manipulate or confuse other species, or force them to be any other way than their natural self, yet we humans are open for anything. How is that possible?

A matter of identification

Maybe it’s a matter of identification. Unlike other species, humans seem to be able to identify with anything and everything. You can tell us how to dress, how to speak, how to feel, how to think, how to raise our kids – heck, you can even tell us how to procreate – and we will happily submit to it, be proud of it and call it nature, tradition, progress or even freedom. We fear, scold, condemn, judge, exclude and punish along with what we are dictated by the media and our leaders, without any moral compass of our own. If the wind blows differently tomorrow, we will cheerfully walk in another direction.

There doesn’t seem to be a steady prototype of a typical human, while there definitely is a steady prototype of a cucumber, a tomato, a lion or a tree – anything in nature, for that matter. But us humans, we are so volatile – which is another typically human characteristic. We go where the wind blows. Yes, we have two legs and two arms, ten toes and then fingers. We want safety, comfort and we like to procreate, but does that define our essence? It is said that we share most of our DNA with monkeys and pigs, but we behave completely different from them. Our behaviour seems to be at the mercy of what we are told to think, believe and do, as opposed to any animal or plant on the planet. If a lost child is adopted, kept alive and raised by a wolf clan, it will believe it is a wolf and behave like a wolf. It will walk on all fours, devour raw meat and howl at the moon. It will have no doubt about who it is, because it is not raised by humans. How is that possible?

Humans are delusional

Another characteristic of humans is that we think very highly of ourselves. We pride ourselves to be independent thinkers, while the facts contradict that in every possible way. We believe we are defenders of freedom and liberty, despite our need for leadership and guidance. We like to believe we are free individuals, that we own our life, while in truth we have no freedom whatsoever and don’t want it either. We all wear jeans, we all drive a grey car, we all complain about the weather, we all go to work, we all go on holiday at the same time, we all want to be thin, we all pay taxes, we all want a relationship, we all have a mobile phone – and still we think we are original because our phone has a Kitty cover.

We imagine ourselves to be on moral high ground, the pinnacle of evolution, while we have nothing to show for. We believe we control the planet and everything on it, even the weather, while in truth the weather does what it wants. We are like Don Quichotte fighting wind mills. We fantasize that we are noble, strong characters, striving for enlightenment and justice, while in reality we are completely oblivious to the state of the world. In truth, humans have no problem imagining all kinds of realities and worlds, clean of any evidence. We don’t need proof for our convictions – that’s how strong they are. Maybe what characterizes us most is our self-delusion – or is it the power of our imagination?

We are a tabula rasa species

Humans take no pride in being who they are, it seems. They seem to be completely lost for an identity. Other creatures in nature are fully dedicated to their uniqueness, their characteristics, their trades and qualities, to who they really are. They have a strong identity which they are dedicated to and will defend to the end. But people seem to have nothing to defend, eventually. They are immediately willing to give up their identity if someone comes along and says: from now on these are the rules, or from now on this is fashionable. Humans seem to have no fucking clue who or what they are. That might be the secret, the main trade of human kind. We aren’t a slave species, we are a tabula rasa species. We are blank slates. We are the only species on this planet lacking a true identity, hence we can identify with anything and be fully dedicated to it. How is that possible?

Sanne Burger
sanneburger.com