I don’t think I will ever say that I don’t like food or drink or sex or the sun or the rain or music or colours or prayer or anything good. I fact, I hope I will always say I love these things. There are appetites that are natural and part of what is good in us as humans. Can we ever hate our own appetites or another person’s appetites? Can we kill our own normal appetites or another person’s normal appetites? Can a person become sick, abnormal, monstrous, or evil for lack of normal appetites? What is a normal appetite or what makes an appetite normal?
Have you ever been passionate about something and what would you have done for it: fast and pray? spend your time, money, and energy? destroy lives and property? invade someone’s territory or privacy? lie, cheat, and deceive? steal and dominate? sacrifice your possessions or even self? Is passion good or evil or can passion be good or evil? Is the result of passion good or evil or can the result of passion be good or evil? Is passion questionable or controllable? What makes passion normal and what makes passion abnormal?
Emotions are a sea without shores. I think from the time I awake to the time I go to sleep every day, I am swimming in this sea. Now, I can swim to exhaustion and achieve nothing and I can swim to reach a destination. What do I get out of anger or happiness or sorrow or contentment or envy or fear or confusion or anxiety or empathy or any of our numerous feelings? The outcomes of every day of our lives are partly dependent on our emotions. When we look back at the end of our lives, would we see their effects on our lives, on other people’s lives, and on the world?
The more questions I ask about them, the more I think the human appetites, passions, and emotions are strange. It seems to be why we have the ‘Thou shall not’ commandments, the volumes and volumes of books of human law that feed arguments in court rooms, and regulations upon regulations on which civilizations depend.
Our appetites, passions, and emotions are strange, very strange. They can be evil and they can be good, they can be subtle and they can be overt, they can be predictable and they can be unpredictable, they can be controlled and they can be out of control, they can be useful and they can be useless, they can be appropriate and they can be inappropriate, etc. They have come to ill-define human nature because often when we talk about “human nature” or exclaim “human beings!!” we mean human emotions or refer to the outcomes of human emotions.
“Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species or human nature.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misanthropy). Misanthropists, asocial persons, recluses, loners, and hermits, are the kinds of people who try to escape human beings or human nature. Terrorists try to destroy humans altogether.
The experience of the results of human appetites, passions, and emotions can lead to anthrophobia (fear of humanity), homophobia (fear of particular human beings), social anxiety disorder (fear of being in society), antisocialism (hatred of or fear of society or harmful towards society), antinatalism (hatred or fear of procreation and new life or babies), misogyny (hatred of females), misandry (hatred of males), nihilism (belief that human life has no purpose, meaning, or value), mysotheism (hatred of God or any god), pessimism (a default mentality of negativity), cynicisms (a default mentality of no good), dictatorship (controller and enforcer of a determined order), supremacy (a default mentality that one is superior to others), racism (a default mentality that one’s race is superior to other races), tribalism (a default mentality that one’s tribe is superior to other tribes), fanaticism (imposition of one’s beliefs on others), and egoism (a default mentality that it’s all about oneself and others do not matter).
Within our family lives and in the larger society we see expressions of appetites, passions, and emotions and we ourselves express ours. We are all victims of appetites, passions, and emotions and we are all culprits with our appetites, passions, and emotions. They can take us through to an extreme of a life of hatred. On the other hand we are all blessed through our appetites, passions, and emotions. They can take us through to an extreme of a life of love.
Of course there are many more strange things about our appetites, passions, and emotions and the more questions we ask, the stranger they seem to get. Strangest of all is possibly that they are responsible for the world of human civilizations as we know it. They make the earth so unique a planet.
“What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare” is from one of my favourite poems (by W. H. Davies). I have learned to stop and ask myself questions. Sometimes I ask questions that do not need answers. It helps me to understand myself a great deal more. It helps me to understand other persons a little bit more. It helps me to understand God, The Unquestionable; “Kabiyesi!” – as we say in Yoruba. It helps me to understand life.
Dr. Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635
Leave a Reply