Are you ready to die for humanity?

It is an uncomfortable but necessary question these days

SUBSTACK NEVER CEASES TO BRING NICE SURPRISES for me. It is a place where I can meet wonderful people and have amazing discussions that broaden my perspective and sharpen my mind.

I highly recommend everyone come there. And that’s not just because my journal is here, but because it’s truly stimulating.

These days, I posted a quote from the great Austrian neurologist and psychologist Viktor Frankl, who I consider one of my greatest inspirations. I had a lot to say about him, but let’s save that for another article. Here, the focus is on his saying:

"In times of crisis, we must hold fast to our humanity, for it is in our darkest moments that we discover the true measure of our strength."

A good friend and subscriber there replied to me, saying that the word "humanity" has a loaded sense for him. It feels overly idealistic, even though it may have once represented something noble. While it encompasses both the best and worst of people—from fascist haters to selfless heroes—humanity, in general, has transformed into an ugly concept.

And he is not wrong.

As someone witnessing the desperation, destruction, fear, and terror in Ukraine over these almost 1,000 days of Russian invasion, it is easy to agree that there’s a lot of vile behavior, and humans are capable of surpassing their own levels of evil.

It’s worth examining this a bit further. We certainly know that fascism is, unfortunately, becoming a bigger concern everywhere again. Just 80 or 90 years ago, it cast a dark shadow over our societies, haunting us through several periods of time.

Their cruelty lies in the fact that it’s very easy to hate and find a common enemy for our problems, as hatred requires no effort. Reaching the noble side of humanity, however, is an option that completely takes us out of our comfort zones, demanding thoughtfulness, extensive mental and historical reflection, and, not less important, a desire to find the best in ourselves.

These are very hard things to achieve nowadays, especially in times where the living experience for so many of us has been summed up in a struggle to survive. And I’m not saying this as a citizen of Ukraine; the challenges are everywhere. The cost of living rises uncontrollably wherever you go. Millions and millions around the world, even in developed countries, are working hard, unsure if they will have food for their children by the end of the week or if they can afford to pay the rent by the end of the month.

The idea of noble humanity is nothing more than noble humans acting together. Only when we find the nobility, the virtue, inside our hearts and minds can we comprise a noble collective. And how could we find that virtue inside us if we don’t even have time to stop, breathe, and search for our humanity?

I don’t know if it’s still possible to reverse this grim situation. The only certainty I have, however, is that we cannot give up. Nothing like war to show that all effort is worthwhile. Because the nightmare, my friends, we are already living.

Things are truly out of control with our civilization, and we don’t need a foreign invader to see that. Just look at the politics in the United States, for example, and we have a clue of how dangerous these times are.

There’s only one option: to drive our rational side into constructing a healthy collective of humans, with the goals of peace, happiness, and prosperity. These qualities are tied to humanity’s noble side, not its base instincts.

Perhaps our base instincts would lead us to kill each other at the slightest signal of disagreement—who knows? And it will not lead us anywhere.

This includes the exercise of empathy, the ability to see and feel the other’s demands without judging them with our own rules.

It will be a hard task, maybe the hardest we could undertake as individuals and as societies. But there’s simply no other option.

I prefer to believe it is possible to reach a better level of humanity until we get to the point of leaving aside the assumption of "humanity" as having a bad connotation.

This is the fight for our time. We need to be ready to die for the concept of humanity. For the good one, of course. Because as strange as it seems, we are all part of it. And a flawed humanity will simply have no respect for our lives.

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Photos: 1. Artillery fire destroyed Valentyna’s house in the Mykolaiv Region. Photo: © Sverige for UNHCR/Felicia Monteverde Holmgren.

2. Olesia, a local teacher in the Kharkiv Region, stands in her destroyed classroom. Photo: © Save the Children/Anstasiia Zahoskina

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