Blog #108--Human Mythology of Superiority

Throughout history, the human ego has glorified itself as the best and brightest living organism on Earth. It wants to feel secure, and the best way to reinforce that notion is to brag about itself. There are myriad examples of this phenomenon despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Before proceeding further, I wish to acknowledge the likelihood most people reading this blog will attack both the writer and the premise. How dare I say humans are not superior to all other life forms? Did I get up on the wrong side of the bed before writing this? Of course humans are superior, and anyone stating otherwise is either extremely dumb or self-hating, or so they might say.

But to paraphrase Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” after awakening from a set of enlightening dreams, “I have not taken leave of my senses, I’ve come to them.” I have heard all sorts of people in my life proclaiming their magnificence to the mountaintops, as have we all. After awhile, it gets too redundant to believe. They can’t all be correct in their presumptions.

For instance, every human grouping around the world throughout time has given itself a name in its own language which means something like “the true people,” “the real people,” “the chosen people” and other similar phrases. They are saying, “We are better than the others.” They all believe they are correct, but some if not all are not telling themselves the truth.

Many devotees proclaim their religion is “favored by God” as well. Logically, any benevolent creator would not favor one of his/her/its creations over the others. Otherwise, why create them in the first place? Can a creator be infallible and yet make mistakes?

Numerous wars have been fought over relatively miniscule differences between one religion and another. They’re not miniscule to those doing the fighting, but all religions have much more in common than they have differences. Fighting over supremacy proves nothing but is needed for those who doubt their own stated beliefs.

More recently, other equally self-centered phrases have entered our lexicon. For instance, the United States coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” in the 1900s as an excuse to steal land from the Native Americans, Mexicans, Canadians and others. According to this concept, God gave America a special destiny that requires it to have all the land and resources it wants regardless of whom might be harmed in the process. The latest similar phrase I’ve heard is “American Exceptionalism,” which claims this country has an inalienable right to dictate how others should live and what they should believe because we are superior to all others.

If only we were magnanimous to those we try to control. If only we opened our hearts and cared for those less fortunate than ourselves. Then we would be practicing what we preach. But we use these egoistic phrases as excuses to bomb innocent civilians, destroy their access to water and life’s other necessities, and help them only if they give us everything we want in return. That is predictable behavior for spoiled children, not superior adults.

The human ego is fragile and needs constant praise to keep it from feeling inferior and vulnerable to others. I am not writing this to demean my fellow humans because I understand how self-defeating it is to feel inferior. What many of us don’t understand is that we also feel insecure when we brag about our superiority since deep inside, each and every one of us has doubts as to the veracity of the assumption. I certainly don’t want anyone to feel inferior or have increased fear levels after reading this.

The truth is that we are neither superior nor inferior to anyone else. We are all spirits that live forever and are one with our creator. Most major religions claim to agree with this notion, whether they practice it or not. In that sense, we are all special and perfect exactly as we are. We are all equals.

Our higher selves, the synthesis of our two opposite halves, are one with our creator and understand this. But our human ego, believing it is either male or female, dominant or submissive but not both, creates hierarchies of superior and inferior to rationalize its existence. The ego's influence is temporary, but the spirit exists eternally. So which voice would you rather believe, the fearful ego or the permanent knowingness of the spirit?

Like I stated in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” our egos have taken a beating over the centuries. We are not the center of the universe. The sun doesn’t revolve around us. We are not the only humanoids who exist in the Universe, and the Earth is not the only planet capable of sustaining life. We are merely a small cog in a gigantic machine. We each have our part to play, but any notion of superiority is ridiculous on its face.

We can’t even claim superiority over other life forms in our immediate environment. Sure, we can kill them off (at least, if we are also willing to destroy ourselves in the process), but that only makes us the most destructive life form, not the best. We can’t kill off germs, cock roaches, rats or mice selectively since they all are capable of mutations that resist our attempts to destroy them.

We don’t see, hear or smell things nearly as well as some other species. Our telepathic skills are far less developed than most other species. Sonar and certain other sensing devices are present in selected species other than humans. We may have the most complex brains, but we have bodies prone to the most illnesses. As species go, we are no better at survival than most others.

The first and loudest voice in our minds might claim superiority over others, but there is also a quiet inner voice that knows better and will guide us safely past the rapids of egoistic scare tactics. Once we let go of that which cannot be true, what we have left is truth. I guarantee that knowledge will sustain us far better than the mythology of superiority ever could.

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