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Long
ago, in that sexist 18th-century definition, our species, commonly addressed,
was known as Man. Now we address ourselves to our common "humanity,"
but speak to one another using the embarrassingly awkward phrase "human
beings." Embarrassingly awkward as if we no longer know what to call
ourselves. That stutter and stumble over words when you meet an impossibly
elegant woman in a bar, and she speaks to you charmingly, and you stutter
and stumble, unable to truly embody yourself, and are subconsciously embarrassed
to be you.
An online etymological dictionary presents the word "Man" as
perhaps derived from men-, mind. "Woman" is of course from the
old German "wifmen," that is to say "Wife Man." "Human"
comes from humus, "earth," and is described by the etymological
dictionary in terms of "earth man," i.e. man upon the earth
as opposed to the gods above. But it's just as easily "man of earth,"
obviously Adamic, or "man of the earth."
Man. Mind. One syllable. Mind. And yet, ego, the I.
Now, because we're better, we say "human." "HUman."
"HUman BEings." We're emphasizing the earth. And BE, our present
existence on the earth. In English, the pronunciation of the gerund de-ephasizes
the terminal syllable: "ings" is de-emphasized. The "ing,"
the continuing of existence, is de-emphasized and placed into flux. The
only thing that is certain is the "BE," the statement of present
being, and emphasis on "HU" of "human." Meaning falls
on earth and existence. The genius of feminism was to insist upon the
replacement of "man" with "human" because it was a
deliberate and necessary attempt to shift the sociology of America and
the world back to the earth, back to that which sustains our being. It's
no surprise the Women's Movement occurred at the same time as Love
Canal.
The Women's Movement, unfortunately, did not forsee the patriarchy's re-appropriation
of "HUman," which occurred during the Reagan '80s and emphasized
the "HU" and the "BE" to advocate a Gordon
Gekko "Greed is Good" brand of materialism combined
with the coked-up egotism of hedonistic "BEing."
Now we're just "humanbeings." Frightened of the overlording
MANmind that created the Holocaust and the Soviet state. Embarrassed at
the primacy of "HU" and "BE." Half of us hide behind
religion. Half of us are mumbled, afraid that to assert MANmind since
the dictatorial impulse lies behind it. And there are a very slight few
of us who want to dictate. And they know how to use the fears of the repressed
HU BE through the language of evangelical Christianity. Homo economicus
Americanus.
Say it:
HUMAN.
HUMAN.
HUMAN.
[B]
DAVID SCHNEIDER
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