The problem with numbers is this: I can tell you that 1.3 million people in China were forced to leave their homes for the construction of a dam, or that 99% of the Urban population of Nepal lives in slums, but what would that mean to you? I could tell you that hundreds of families in your local area don’t have enough to feed and clothe their children, but how would your mind react? For most of us, we think, “Wow that’s so horrible! Someone needs to do something about that!” We are horrified for about three minutes, and then the microwave beeps, or our show comes on, or our baby starts crying and we thrust it to the back of our mind to be regarded as just one more unpleasant fact in an unpleasant world. Numbers marginalize the real story.
It is a fact, that behind those numbers are individuals. In China, 1.3 million individuals with histories, passions, goals, dreams, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters; men and women who have felt love, hate, joy, envy, sorrow and a myriad of other things were forced to leave their homes with nothing but what they could carry a lot of the time. Our mind retreats when we try to comprehend the meaning behind such a number. Saying 1.3 million people is far easier than contemplating the cost in individual losses of home, dignity, livelihood, and happiness. It is much easier to confine the thought to 1.3 million people in China. Well, China has over 1 billion people right (another number)? So…1.3 million out of 1 billion is not so bad.
How old are you? Think of everything that you have experienced that makes you who you are today? Think of your fondest memories, your worst. Think of your hardest struggles and your moments of enlightenment. Think of the people whom you love. How does it feel to love someone? All of these things make you who you are. You share the planet with billions of other individuals who share with you with human experience. To you, they are 7 billion other people. Guess what? To them, you are just one of the seven billion other people. It is a concept that has no real meaning to us. It is a very large number. A 7 with 9 zeros after it. It is easy for us to think of the world in this manner. We as a race like to put things in categories and ignore the complexities that lie beneath.
Some would say that the environment of the world is going to pot because of the immense size of our population, and the trajectory of its growth. I say, our biggest environmental problems all stem not from how many of us there are, but how we treat one another.
We are growing ever further apart from our neighbors. The world is becoming less and less personal. How many times have you ridden a plane or a bus full of people, but void of interaction? How many times have you looked around to see a sea of blank faces, all of them afraid to catch one another’s gaze? How many times have you walked down a busy hall where everyone was trying their hardest to not even brush up against another person. Have you ever apologized for brushing against a stranger? Have you ever asked yourself why?
The problem with numbers is that they take the human out of humanity. They strip from individuals their individuality. They give our minds and hearts an easy escape from tackling those most important problems that face the world today. I would wish for a world where we could let ourselves become human again. I would wish for a world where we could let our neighbors become human again.
