The human body isn’t a vessel for self-actualization. It isn’t designed to give us long, happy lives.
The human body, like any animal, is a particle of an ecosystem. It’s designed to reproduce, consume, and be consumed. It’s a brief carrier of the elements that cycle through nature – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.
That’s why we don’t last. We age rapidly. We catch incurable diseases. Barring minor injuries, we don’t even heal well; the only way to fix severe damage is to cut us open, and that brings us excruciating pain and spills our most vital fluid. The field of medicine is all about circumventing a system that isn’t designed for major repair. Injured animals are meant to die and reunite with the earth.
It’s also why we’re not cosmetically perfect. Pimples, odors, excretions, and the genetic gamble of attractiveness, are all features of the human body. An animal doesn’t need to be sublime; it only needs to attract others of its kind. Some individuals need to be uglier than others, too, for there to be selection.
Finally, I believe it’s why our civilizations struggle. Aggression, greed, sloth – every uncivilized urge – are programmed into every animal. I’d claim that we’re unusually gentle, altruistic, and hard-working animals, but we’re still animals. It’s no mystery that our societies end up flawed, divided, and biased in favor of the strong.
Yet, we desire all those things we’re not built for. We want to live long, secure lives; to decide how we look; and to coexist in harmonious, equitable societies. We act as if pimples and excretions don’t exist, as if deaths and injuries are anomalous tragedies, as if war and corporate greed are unfathomable evils. Almost everything we want to do and be is contrary the human body. Because the human body is animal, while we want to be concept.
If your flesh is sacred to you, I won’t try to take that away. I’m quite attached to my body myself. I’m only making the case that humanity, as a concept, transcends its incarnation. Much of our misery, I believe, stems from our minds’ reach and our bodies’ feeble grasp.