"And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is."
"It’s a lot more complicated than that -"
"No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts."
"Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--"
"But they starts with thinking about people as things..."
- Granny Weatherwax educating Mightily Oats in Carpe Jugulum. We miss you, Terry.
We are things in the end, of course, but more. We tell stories. Story-telling things. Let's just stick with people.
But there are so many of us. Makes it easy to think of people as things.
How many do you pass on your evening commute? Do you give their stories more than a passing thought? And the ones far away, living in shacks?
Do you give thought to what the world will be like after you die? All of those humans popping into existence, fluttering into oblivion. What will they see? How will they treat each other? How much pain will they endure?
It overwhelms me. How can we possibly bear that burden? Our brains aren't wired to consider more than a few. It's a conundrum.
And then there are the monsters, those who see others only as objects - to command, to extort, to scam, to abuse, to neglect. Are they things? Are they evil? Can a thing be evil?
No, they are people, of course. They test us. They represent us. They are us. We all sin, just some more than others. I wonder, do we sacrifice the worst sinners for absolution?
We must rebel against the very idea of people as things. Many of us already do. We teach, we vote, we give, we care. Caring is the key. Without it, we are lost.
Is caring enough, though? I don't know the answer. All we can do is try.