Narrative Argument From a General

Narrative Argument

From a general viewpoint, the world has been subject to many crimes of hate, passion, and the sheer fever of possession. It seems that human beings today are somewhat possessed by a need to not only improve technology, but also the world around us, and in the process, our income and financial strength. The question is how far has this drive deteriorated our humanity and our sense of caring for each other? Has this world simply become a habitat for entities that function on an individual level, with every person functioning on his or her own, to see how much he or she can accumulate during a lifetime to leave to children who are similarly inclined? I like to believe that we are better than that. I like to believe that the human spirit remains stronger than its individual parts.

One of the most poignant cases in point for the evolution of the goodness in humankind is business. At the beginning of the 19th century, for example, bosses regarded their workers simply as another cog in the machine of money making. Today, workers are recognized as human beings. It is also recognized that human beings have certain needs in terms of job satisfaction, their home lives, and personal considerations. In general, the corporate world is much more tolerant of the humanity of its workers than it was just a century, or even just 50 years ago.

Also, humanity itself has become much more tolerant and loving within itself as a paradigm. There are many more people today who are understanding of the plight of others. People seem to have returned to a sense of values that has been denied by the corporate world and indeed the world in general for centuries.

Today, at the end of the first decade in a new century, there seems to be a return to a general and common sense of humanity. People today seem to have a greater sense of caring and common emotion than they did a century or even decades ago.

Still, I do believe that this sense of humanity and mutual caring has been part of humanity, even in a dormant state, for all the history of the exitence of this race. One story to illustrate this comes from Nazi history at the start of the 20th century, when most assume that human beings were regarded simply as objects towards an end.

One story that illustrates this comes form the Nazi concentration camps, housing thousands of Jewish inhabitants. While the worst of humanity was demonstrated in the way in which the Germans treated their Jewish inhabitants at the time, Maslow's theories were put to shame by the way in which the Jews treated each other.

According to Maslow, all humanity is ruled primarily by physical appetite. In other words, we can only be truly loving and caring on an emotional and personal level if our most immediate, basic needs are met. What this means is that, if we are not sufficiently fed and clothed, we cannot be loving, forgiving, or generous to other souls. According to this theory, the humanity in us dictates that immediate needs must be met before we will be able to care for the higher needs within each of us. I would beg to differ with this, because of specific stories that place the human spirit far above the sum of its physical parts.

I read a document by Jewish captives I a Nazi camp once. They went through the most terrible of physical hardship. There was no food, or food was at least inadequate. There was not sufficient health care, and, for most inhabitants, they have been separated from friends, family, and even acquaintances. By theories such as that of Maslow, these people should have become feral animals, fighting like dogs for the little food they were provided with.

But, according to the story I heard, this was not so. According to my story, the feeling among the Jews was that their humanity was the last bit of dignity that they could hold on to. They shared everything. If a person was hurt or died, they took care of the wounded and buried the dead. They comforted those who lost loved ones and shared their food as equally as they could. The question is why did they do this? According to the account I read, they did this not only for the sake of their humanity, but for the sake of staying alive. According to one account, the person who took even one berry more than they were allocated according to fair distribution would soon be dead. Those who lived longest were those who shared among each other, and those who developed caring relationships.

This story shows that, even I the worst physical circumstances, it is the human spirit of camaraderie, sharing and caring that prevails. Those who live their lives according to a paradigm of personal gain at the expense of others are left with nothing when they reach old age and indeed when they die.