Misanthrophy is a dislike of humankind and nihilism is the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. From what I've read anyways.
As sardonic as I can be about humanity, it's only because I still care sufficiently that it bothers me to see humanity's nastier flaws and tendencies erupt. I can't give up on the human race, and I lament the people who do. Those very same people who use many devices and conveniences created by the same humankind they don't believe in, to express discontent and disbelief in humankind.
We're tearing apart things at the atomic level, curing diseases and creating modifications to plant life. We've created an instantaneous communication network all across the world. Right now, I could send a message to someone in Japan and have it arrive in under a second. We've sent satellites out to Mars and dropped Rovers to explore its surface. We've mastered the art of architecture to create efficient cities that can house hundreds of thousands of people comfortably. We live in greater levels of casual opulence than we've ever had at any period in human history, and generate enough food to feed the entire world twice over. Our healthcare systems stretch across thousands of hospitals and millions of care workers. We've penned ideas such as universal justice and liberty. We have thirty guaranteed human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom from slavery. Speaking of, there has not been a single country on Earth--no matter how frustratingly backwards--where slavery has been legal since 1981. We beat the speed of sound, we've created structures that reach above the clouds we used to worship as manifestations of Gods. We went from inbred goat fucking superstitious fools to where we are now in a mere 6,000 years: Masters of our own evolutionary destiny. We're many thousands of times faster than the processes which created us at improving and evolving. We're intelligent enough to discern and understand our origins across hundreds of species that came before us.
Each generation sees greater and faster advancements than previous generations. We live 2-3 times as long as our medieval cousins did. When Fort Mac burned, people loaded trucks with supplies and drove north of the city I live in of their own independent volition to assist the bereaved on their own time. Anywhere in the world an emergency hits, millions of dollars of relief supplies and personnel are flown in within 24 hours of the event occurring. There are over 1.5
million charitable organizations in the US alone and said organizations received over
1.65 Trillion in total revenue and 3 Trillion in assets. Our stories are constantly growing larger and better, seeking to tell noble values of valiant heroes and humanize flawed people. When a few people blew up two towers, thousands of men and women ran in to help survivors, no matter the personal risk or odds of success. We've seen more social progress and acceptance across racial, gender, and sexual orientation borders in the past 100 years than we've seen since mankind was first born as a species. More people will live, eat, breed, and die free of war than ever before in human history.
We're still children in the cradle of life, still trapped within the bonds of our own faults and the few miles of atmosphere that make the difference between stunning blue skies and a black, empty void.
We've terraformed the planet to our own desires and will.
We're the apex predator, smart enough that even when we didn't understand the processes, we brought other species in and domesticated them. We created dogs, and cats, and ferrets. We created cows, and pigs, and chickens. Where all other species are bound and gagged by tribal behaviours they don't understand, we've started to overcome them. What were once wandering nomadic tribes became towns and cities. What were once towns and cities became countries, nations, empires. Where we once put the sword to those who disagreed with us, we now use the pen. Where we once killed because someone was different, we now embrace differences. Where a Muslim and a Christian would once slit each other's throats or try to rule over one another, we now have entire countries where millions of them call each others neighbours before going to work and eating breakfast surrounded by their loved ones.
Human beings in general are kind and compassionate. They don't want to hurt other people, they only feel that they must in order to preserve themselves or something which they care about. Only the unloved and the unnatural hate and wish destruction upon others for its own sake. Only fear and ignorance drive us to hurt each other. It speaks volumes that extremist Imams in the middle east and warlords in Africa have to kidnap and indoctrinate children, beat them, try to break their individuality, try to break their compassion for other people. Hatred is a disease and a most insidious force. We're not born to kill each other, we're born to live our own lives. It speaks volumes that in the absence of abuse and hatred, children tend not to grow into murderers, vagabonds, and thieves. Children aren't born with hatred, they learn hatred. They're born with curiosity, they're born with a desire to learn about things which interest them for one reason or another. They're born wanting to be social, desiring attention, wanting for friendship and material things.
We're equipped with the capacity for violence because violence is a useful evolutionary tool for survival, but we're the masters of our own evolutionary destiny. We're masters of our own biological impulses, we're capable of understanding and controlling or countermanding them. Men can be pretty, women can be strong.
Manifest Destiny awaits. Carpe Diem. We're a flawed species, but we're the result of flawed processes. Yet with each step we take, bloody and slow that it may be from our eyes, in the lifespan of a universe we are growing a lightning fast pace. In but the simplest blink of an eye we went from being terrified of fire to using fire to get us to the moon. "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Only a fool would look at our accomplishments and despair, because a fool can only see ten feet past the bridge of his own nose. Look at how long the universe has been here, look at how long life has been here on planet Earth. Look at how long it took just for humanity to become a species. Look at how long it took for humanity to even begin to play with fire, and master the wheel and the horse. Our growth is nothing less than the stuff of miracles and sheer, unyielding determination across hundreds of generations.
We are an absolutely amazing species, and so far as we know in this cold and silent universe, unique beyond all measure. No matter the number of missteps, we always learn, and grow, and get better. If the day should come that we fail and destroy ourselves, I won't know, I will be dead. As for whatever terrible troubles of today, there were always just as many yesterday. We always find a way. We have for six thousand years, I've no reason to believe it will stop now just because our present issues are in the present instead of the past.
