We are defined at a cellular level

You know you are a CSI freak when you can cite quotes from the characters in the show. Yes, I am guilty of that. One thing that intrigues me when it comes to the original CSI is the insightful, quirky and funny quotes it dished out to the audience (as opposed to the sappy and corny one liners by Horatio Caine in the spin-off CSI: Miami).  So, being bored to the brink of death, I have decided to dig up my CSI collections and rewatch some episodes from the first season onwards. Not suprising, I managed to pick up a couple of interesting quotes. Here are my few favourites

” An eye for an eye, and the world goes blind,” Warrick Brown

“Everybody learns from science, it’s how you use it that matters,” Gil Grissom

“Poor people are crazy, rich people are eccentric,” Gil Grissom

Okay people, hang in there. I’m not attempting to choke you with the multitude of quotes I have learned from the show for the past couple of days. Rather, I am here to dissect this one very interesting quote by a lesser-known character, Sofia Curtis, who was a CSI in Season 5 before deciding that she likes gun better than the rubber gloves in Season 6 when she moved to the Homicide Department (told ya I am a CSI freak)

“What we are never changes. Who we are never stops changing.”

We are defined at a cellular level, as suggested by Sofia Curtis and Gil Grissom. We are what we are since the day we were born. Twenty-three pairs of chromosomes (or an extra or minus one for those with chromosomal abnormalities). We are born with a genetic mapping of our own, and nothing will change that. We will always be human, at least technically. Nothing will take the homo sapiens out of us. What we are never changes

Who we are, our identity though, according to Sofia Curtis, is the totality of our life experiences. What we do every seconds, every single decisions that we make, every minor steps and strides that we take in our lives, dictates who we are. The people we meet, our relationships with everyone, the things that we touch, smell and see, the events of our life, whether we remember them clearly or not, shape who we are. Hence, who we are never stops changing.

While what we are makes us human, who we are has the capability to make us less than human.  What does it mean to be human, not in a genetic sense, but rather, for lack of better words, spiritually? What separates us from the other species of animals and those in the netherworld, if you believe in spirits, ghosts and devils?

To state the obvious, to be human is to be humane. Humane, in the sense that we not only should treat others as equal, but we should treat other living creatres with respect. Of course, I am not rooting for a Veggie Movement here. I do not believe that we should stop eating meat. Being an omnivore has always been a human nature since eons ago. It has perhaps played a big part in our genetic modification (I prefer modification, rather than mutation). Eating meat, for us, is part of the ecological cycle. Abusing animals, is however, not part of our ecological cycle. Wild animals should be left out in their natural habitat, not caged, not hunted.

As for being humane to a human, places like Guatanomo Bay and people like George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden definitely is not in the list. Compassion, and the ability to show that compassion is what makes us human. A couple of months ago, the world was shocked with news of Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter in captivity in an underground dungeon at his home for the past 24 years and repeatedly raped he. I cringed at the thoughts that I, as well as 6 billion other people in this world share the same genetics make-up as him. This simply means that we are all capable of doing things like that, and I think that terrifies us all. I guess this is where the line is drawn, being human and less human. Being human, we know our boundaries, we operate within socially acceptable standards. Our behaviours may deviate a little bit below the standards, but it is our fear of deviating, our self-righteousness if you may, that keeps us from being less human.

For people like Fritzl, however, they have taken a step too far from the boundary. They have taken the human’s ability to rationalise a level higher by rationalising all their spiteful actions, affirming them, and living with that rationalisiation for the rest of their life. Physically they are human. Mentally, they are human. Spiritually, they were, until they have bounced off too far from the line to the point of no return.

So, friends. A point to ponder upon. We are homo sapiens but, are we really human?