the value of a human life.

What’s the value of a human life today? Can we put a number to it? Is life really so binary? If so, are you a 0 or a 1?

With the recent developments on the genocide in Gaza. The current and ongoing occupation of Lebanon, the bombings of Iran, and the lifelong struggle of people living in African nations. We understand that life is not equal for all. Some people are born with natural defects. We can’t stop nature from following its due course. We certainly can “change” or rather talk about inequality caused by humanity and “geography”.

Hell On Earth

A child born in an area where war is imminent or is a cruel reality of today didn’t choose to be there. One can argue that he was yet forced by nature to be placed in an active “hell on earth”, yet that argument loses its value upon the realization that the “hell” was in turn placed by those same humans who were once questioning nature, and that nature does not have any reason to reply to our own injustices.

So what’s the value of a child living in what we earlier called “hell” on Earth? His net worth amounts to nothing. He does not own any assets. He does not have relatives who might make some positive increment in his self-worth, as they are probably dead, and if not, then they exist too but in the same state as the child does, WORTHLESS.

So let him be, because he isn’t providing any value to our lives. OUR LIVES, which of course do have value. They have a lot of value because of the things we do. Things we do to make our society better. Things that do not just benefit us but others. Unlike that child. That child just exists in the rubble; we provide the “possible” for what was not so possible. Yet, in that child’s case, we are helpless. We do not have a solution because it doesn’t directly impact our lives. It doesn’t provide any value to our lives. Doesn’t cause a change in our society. It’s just a child who exists at some arbitrary place in the world.

Some might argue that the father caring for his son is a deeply inherent property of the “father”. The father will care and love his child, and why should he not? They are, in the end, his children. So we decided that humans can “care”, but their care is subjective. It largely depends on how deep-rooted the connection is. It also depends on the distance.

“If the death and misery are far “enough”, humans can live with it.”

anonymous

Sometimes the figures of authority in a “valuable” human society might be the ones responsible for the death and misery in a certain region, far enough. This makes some valuable humans indirectly responsible for the death and misery in the “certain region”. These humans keep living as if nothing happened, but that is because, as discussed before, the death and misery are indeed far enough.

The lines are blurred. The different facets of this complex human system might not be logical but are statistically proven to be the only fact that exists. The value of a human life might still be there, but only for those lucky “valuable humans”.

Rafay

I write on whatever I want to write, mostly because I can.

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