Human beings may not be an endangered species, but there are nonetheless three main foes of the "human-ness” of human beings -- of an acceptance of our very human nature.
First there is group identity: the belief that human beings do awful things because they are members of groups, such as Catholics or Muslims, South Dakotans or Texans, Irish or Serbian. Nonsense; humans do bad things because it is part of being human to be flawed, and not because of some groupthink. Blame the person, not the group.
Second, there are those who think humans are "just another animal." Nonsense again. We are animals, but we have capacities of symbols, planning and communication that other animals do not.
Third are those who hate the human body and are eager to replace us with bots or upload our consciousness to the internet. These are the "trans-human" sorts.
The "human-ness" of human beings should be cherished, since for all our blemishes we have done good things with technique, art, and kindness. They can't take that away from us, and I hope we won't let them. We may not be the best animal around, but we are good enough to feel a little pride along with our shame.
