Viraj's Weblog

I saw the movie 'The Proposition' which was a cold, dark, and raw movie ultimately about blood ties and human nature. The movie actually made me think about evolution. In the movie, an important character is the flies. It's wierd, they are in almost every scene. They are shown buzzing around the filthy people of the land. But the real kicker is the flies are buzzing around the upper class people as well, with their nice houses, proper hygiene, and clean living areas. Both the bums and the rich are swatting the flies off of their face and neck.

I felt a point was trying to be made here. That no matter how much we try to hide our animal nature, we are still animals. Our divisions of class are only superficial. Inside we are all the same. The movie has alot of graphic violence, and this also helps to convey this point. But the flies are what really stuck with me.

When people think about evolution, they usually think "survival of the fittest" and "humans descended from apes." But I think we miss the real point, and that is the concept of ancestry. The fact that we are ALL related by a common ancestry. That the terrorist is your brother.

Think about that for one moment. What would make you kill your family? Would you not want to resolve conflicts with those you love instead of resorting to violence? What makes it easier to pull the trigger on a person outside of our supposed family than on our own mother? Evolution says that the person you hate, despise, the murderer, is actually your brother, sister, mother, and father. Why do we not treat people that way?

Think of how different the world would be if you considered every other human being your family. Would you not treat them differently?

I think there are alot of people that say they believe in evolution but really are ignorant to its concepts. You may say you believe in evolution, but you are wrong. I will say that if you advocate violence, war, or anything that causes death or suffering to other human beings, and you believe a murderer should be treated any differently than your closest family member, then you don't believe in evolution. I think we have alot of atheists out there that only accept evolution halfway. In other words, hypocrites.

It's because we cannot grasp the concept of an extended family including every human being on earth. Or can we? Is there any possibility of realizing that the homeless man in the gutter is deserving of the love you give to your mother or wife? This is the real question and I feel the true dilemma of humanity. As long as the answer is no, there will be war, and the continuous cycle of violence that has plagued us since the beginning of time, back before we were even human.

Is it possible to think that humans can rise above this cycle? To consider every living being as our next of kin? That the blood we spill by bullets are from wounds in our own body?