Why We All Start As Pieces Of Shit
No, you aren’t “special”. But you can self-actualize, and that’s even better.
“You are perfect, no matter what you do!”
“You are so special”
“You are amazing, don’t you ever change”
Have you ever heard these words said to you or to someone in your surrounding?
You know, these kind of expressions that are meant to motivate us by making us think that we are angels from since we set foot on earth, that we are special, and hence that we don’t have to do or change anything in our lives. We barely have to exist, that’s enough for us to shine and be good human beings.
What starts as a way to to make us feel good and okay about ourselves, ends up making our lives miserable: We become self-righteous, always thinking that we don’t have grow or improve to become a good person, and hence we forever stay the same: That is, perfect little pieces of shit.
Born to Survive
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made”
— Immanuel Kant
We are part of the great apes family — remember?
(Just go through this “Human” wiki page if you need a refresher)
And what do Great Apes like to do?
Well, some of them like to jump around like King Kong and eat Bananas, that’s true, but mostly, we basically want to survive: Stay away from danger, eat, and reproduce.
Now, if we don’t make any efforts to grow and improve as humans beings, we will be just spending our entire time on Earth acting on this default mode.
For us, this translates into living a life just for the sake of surviving, working to have a roof up our heads and food on our table, passing on our genes if we are lucky, and trying to not get into trouble.
Do you think that this mode of behavior and making sure you are not already dead makes you perfect and special?
Of course not — that’s what every other single living entity on this planet does, each at its own level, and obviously there is nothing special about that.
But wait, why do we want to feel special in the first place?
One potential reason for wanting to feel special is that you have an inflated ego and always feel the need to compare yourself to everyone else around you in order to reach a superficial sense of fulfillment. But we won’t talk about that here.
For most people, feeling special just means that you matter, that your life matters. It’s an acknowledgment of your right to exist on this planet, that you have a role to play in this world. It gives meaning to your life.
So behind this apparently mere and superficial search for specialness lies a deep-seated need and thirst for meaning in our lives.
And since merely surviving is usually not enough to fill our souls with this sense of significance, we need to switch from the default to a new mode of being.
Becoming an individual comes after Survival Mode
When you start out on planet Earth, there is nothing inherently good, bad or unique about you: You are just one of the infinite number of instances of life indefinitely perpetuating itself.
Once you are done satisfying all of your survival instincts and because you have a consciousness, you start asking yourself questions:
- “What’s it all about?”
- “Why do I exist?”
- “Is there any meaning to my life?”
When you attempt to think about and answer these questions, you get the opportunity to define what your life is about, and that puts you on the path of becoming an individual: That is, someone with a set of thoughts, interpretations and values consciously adopted and self-chosen.
See, we all have an innate need to engage in activities likely to ensure our survival. In this regard, we are all the same. But what differentiates you from your other fellows is your individuality: The aspects of your character and personality that you choose to develop and nourish, the daily choices that you make that end up shaping who you will become, the meaning that you choose to give to your life, and what gift you give out of yourself and to this world.
Achieving individuality cuts the umbilical cord: You are not just part of a whole anymore, but you can also exist as a separate entity, distinct from both Nature and Society.
You start to see that no, you are far from being perfect. At your core, you are just an ape equipped with a consciousness trying to not get killed.
But once you have fulfilled all the survival needs of the ape inside of you, you have the opportunity to create and shape yourself: you realize that everything inside of you exists in a form of potential, something significant that does not exist yet but could be developed, and to achieve your individuality and become a fully developed human being, you have to go through the hard work of actualizing these potentialities.
Otherwise, you will forever stay the same, that is: a perfect little piece of shit.
