Humanists are Human Too

Clay Duke opens fire on the Bay County School Board

Apparently the Florida gunman who opened fire on the Bay County School Board in Florida claimed on his Facebook page that he was a Humanist. He was also diagnosed as being bi-polar and had spent time in prison on a stalking conviction. In other words, he was a human who, despite his best intentions, wasn’t thinking clearly. This much is obvious because people who are thinking clearly don’t take school boards hostage as a way to commit suicide.

I have no idea if he was a Humanist or not. My approach is that people are what they say they are. The important lesson is that being a Humanist doesn’t mean you are perfect. It only means you are striving to be a better person. A process made all the more difficult when coping with a mental illness as this guy was.

Humanists strive to use reason and logic to solve our problems and we try to keep our strong emotions under control when making our decisions. We try to but that doesn’t mean we will always succeed. We also strive to be compassionate with everyone we meet. And again, the fact that we try to be compassionate doesn’t mean we will always succeed. Being logical, rational and compassionate all the time is hard to do, even if you are sane.

The fact of the matter is that we Humanists are humans too. As my dad always said – no group corners the market on stupidity. We have the same struggles and challenges that everyone else has. But just because we won’t always succeed in keeping our basic instincts at bay doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try. We have to try. That’s the point of being a Humanist.

The phrase that keeps sticking in my mind is “there but for the grace of god go I.” I was lucky enough to be born without any mental illness. I am able to think clearly most of the time (except when I am super hungry and my blood sugars are low). The thought of lashing out in violence simply never occurs to me. For me, being a Humanist is easy. For others, through no fault of their own, it is obviously a bit more of a struggle. But I would argue that regardless of your starting point, this is a struggle worth waging. Even though you might not always succeed; when you do, the world is made a little bit better. And that is something worth striving for.

Proof that people are basically good

Humanism’s starting point is the idea that people are basically good. The success of our philosophy depends on whether that statement is true or not. Turns out, it is and the Panera Bread company just proved it. The Panera Bread Company opened a store this past year that is run on a non-profit model. Basically, people pay for their food on the honor system. If you can’t afford to pay, you can still get food. If you can afford to pay, you pay and perhaps pay a little extra to cover the cost of the food of your fellow customers who can’t afford to pay. And – it works!

The good folks at Panera bread didn’t know if this would work because, well, you just can’t ever be sure of basic human nature. And leaving the payment up to the best behavior of your customers is a risk. But it turns out that people are basically good and the number of good people more then makes up for the few who might be taking advantage of this system. Which is good because this model actually pays for itself as a way to help feed the hungry. So double plus good.

The next time someone tells you that people are basically evil don’t believe them. Thanks to Panera Bread we now have capitalist proof that people are basically good.