Elias the Philosopher – Short Reflection on Human Nature

April 8th, 2009 by Elias Parisca

Throughout my life I’ve been lucky enough to have lived and have traveled to many different countries with contrasting cultures, ideas, ways of life and visions of the world we inhabit. As distinct as people are in opposite sides of the world, born to different parenthood and upbringings, the similarities we share as a species are uncanny.

A few days ago we were eating dinner when I heard a mother reprimand a child in the neighbor’s house. I had no idea what the mother was yelling to the child in Ewe, but her emphasis and intonations, combined with the child’s sobbing response brought me several flashbacks to when I was a child and my mother laid down the law. Similarly, watching the kids play around and practice for their cultural performances, I realized that children’s interaction with one another; the faces and grins they make when they are sad, jealous, or embarassed; the manner in which they play or fight; all are shared in every culture, every race, in every remote corner of the world. As different as people may be, human beings are linked by a much stronger bond, that animal instinct at the core of our species. What makes us different is circumstantial, our similarities are innate.