Thursday, 8 January 2026

The Invention Of Inhumanity

Every time there is a spectacle of cold-blooded cruelty —

guts pulled out,

genitals carved into warnings,

newborns torn apart while still latched

to their dead mothers, 


humans rush to call it inhuman.


I’ve always found that

exorbitantly hilarious.


As if cruelty arrived from elsewhere.

As if it trespassed.

As if it forgot it was home.


Civilisation begins here.

Religion begins here.

Inheritance, borders, lineage, gods, 

all drafted in the handwriting

of brothers slaughtering brothers,

sons and fathers spilling blood

over symbols 

they will later teach children 

to respect.


And we still pretend

this is not our most reliable instinct.


What is it,

if not comedy,

to name the most consistent human behaviour

after something 

we insist we are not?


“Inhuman” is not a judgement.

It’s a reflex.


A linguistic recoil.

The sound a species makes

when it catches its own reflection

mid-swing

and looks away.


No monsters.

No deviations.

No bad apples.


Just design.


Violence is not an invention.

It is a ceremony.

A ritual.

A christening.


We gift-wrap it.

Sanctify it.

Normalise it.

Teach it through uniforms, oaths,

and bullet-riddled ethics.


When it becomes uncomfortable,

we rename it.

Distance it.

Call it inhuman

and resume normal functioning.


“Inhuman” is not condemnation.

It’s hygiene.


A way to keep the hands clean

while the blood on the floor

learns to dry.


No other species does this.

No other species kills

and then negotiates vocabulary

to feel innocent again.


Only humans commit atrocity

and demand applause

for feeling conflicted about it.


That is the real evolution.


Empathy didn’t civilise us.

It refined the excuse.

Gave us grief convincing enough

to hold a knife

without our hands trembling.


This is not inhuman.

This is humanity

unedited.


No fall from grace.

No corruption.

No anomaly.


Just a species

doing exactly

what it was built to do, 


and inventing a word

to pretend

it had a choice.

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