Watched the movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" yesterday and I was amused by the premise of the story. I had a lot of thoughts towards the movie, and I was amazed by the fact that the whole plot could indeed happen in real life. With each thing that we do each day, we must realize and understand what drives us to do the things that we do. Similarly if we are doing the things that we do for the right reasons? Are we driven to a life of of improving ourselves and perfecting our craft, or are we striving towards being god-like? And do we face each reaponsibility given to us and take full ownership, or do we just let things happen without thinking of the effects of what we do?
The doctor in the movie was driven to find a cure for his dad's ailment, whatever the cost was, until his father died. His benefactor, was driven by money and pushed on with the program without studying other effects of the drug they were producing, until he realized that the sane drug caused the primate to rebel. On one hand we must realize that both emotions from needs and emotions from wants are great motivators. They can push us to excel and improve. But as we climb and move towards perfection we must first realize if we are motivated by the right reasons. And once we determine this we must then realize if we are acting properly towards our motivations.
The drug that they were developing were supposed to be a cure for Alzhiemer's and similar brain disorders. The effect of the drug on primates was a boost in intelligence and comprehension, which became the benefactor's primary goal to exploit. But the drug when wrongly applied acted as a dangerous airbourne virus that kills humans (the ebola virus now comes to mind). I could not think of a single technology discovered or invented by man that does not have an application for just good, and not for evil. A miracle drug discovered when altered can be a fatal bio-weapon. An efficient power source, turned to a bomb measured on its capacity to destroy. A new teaching tool, transformed into a mind altering machine that can can brain wash victims.
So with the power to create and discover, is the choice to do good or ill. And sometimes, people who intend to do good and start off at the right track, becomes greedy as their motivations change. What wad once an aide to help the disabled, is improved to magnify the normal, and then improved some more to exceed the boundaries and become superhuman. And still that is not enough and we aim to become gods. This leads me to believe that humans are indeed in the right direction of becoming gods. With all the choices we do that leads us to destruction, eventually we would become a singular entity with nothing more to ask for as there is nothing to have. Then we become gods of OUR own universe.
Just a few hours ago I was watching our youngest son crawling on the floor on all fours and found myself remembering how Cesar (the lead ape in the movie) was developing. How he was nurtured, and cared for and taught. The whole movie had an underlying message of a father's/parent's tale, wherein it says that we are responsible for the actions that we do, the examples that we set, and the choices that we make. Several times in the movie, Cesar witnessed how humans act non-human like. How humans can even act more primitive than their primate counterparts. Similarly Cesar had exeperienced how a parent can disappoint a child by making the worst mistake any parent can make, breaking a promise.
Being human is a compicatedly simple task. We have been given the power to think, and the gift of freewill. The tricky part is making the right combinations of both that would make us what we are. And unfortunately too much of one component makes us in-human. We live the life of our choices, and we an only improve our lives if we choose to learn from our mistakes. And as we choose from right and wrong we should always consider that we are not the only one's affected by our choices. Are the acts we do make us truly human? Are we really home?
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