Inhumane Flicks

by Romela Bragais

Humans were created to have dominion over the land and the sea. We, in a way, are the kings and the queens of the world. It is in our hands that life is stunted. It is us humans who are able to destroy this depending on what we think will benefit us. We are so busy with nurturing ourselves that too often, we forget to take into consideration the condition of the abiotic and biotic spheres of the planet we live on. We, humans, proudly claim to have high level of intelligence. And it is disgusting. For what is our high level of intelligence if we show no compassion towards other things God has granted us?

CI, a channel focused on crime investigation, has a commercial that says serial killers look like us, talk like us and live among us. Obviously, CI is pertaining to the ones who killed individuals of the same species. It is logically correct to put emphasis on the phrase “the same species” for CI wants to make it clear that killing humans is the most disgusting act of all.

But pertaining to murder as the worst act of all is actually misleading. Biblically and legally speaking, murdering humans is indeed a punishable act. Are there no other types of crime to pertain to as dehumanizing? The list of monsters should not be limited to serial killers only. Every individual who fails to prove his or her love for mother earth is worthy of a slot in the list. 

Humans are undeniably reckless. Short-sightedness is evident in almost all decisions we create. We shrug at what is going to happen in the near future because we simply don’t want to stress over it. One good example for this is giving a nod to the anti-plastic ordinance. With this law being enforced in the locality, consumers learn to love paper bags and hate those made out of polymers. Yes, the law was established with the sole intent of saving earth from wrong plastic disposal. An ordinary person would say approving the law was the right thing to do. Wise men would think otherwise. They would say enforcing the anti-plastic ordinance would mirror the truth that we don’t care much about birds, trees and global warming. If saving the environment was really the goal of the law, then why were trees, birds, and other factors not put into consideration?

Actually, it would have been better if people just used plastic bags. The large number of plastic bags is not the issue; it is the way we manipulate and dispose them. Traditionally, plastic is viewed as trash. But to chemists, plastic bags could still be converted to paraffins of varying densities. By funding this method of plastic disposal, we would be able to solve one of the biggest problems of humanity: Energy crisis. Aside from doing so, we would be able to show the highest level of love we could give to our planet by not letting our actions revolve around earthly desires. Emphasis on earthly desires.

We humans are responsible for whatever condition the planet is in. We were given the potential to nurture and cultivate the planet. Cats, dogs, and raccoons don’t have the ability to throw dynamites, do illegal logging nor alter the genes of organisms which should not have been altered in the first place. With great power comes great responsibility. It is about time we humans embrace intelligence and vigilance as we free ourselves from selfishness and recklessness. For the sake of other organisms whom we share the planet with, it is best not to let go of inhumane flicks.