The inclusion in the “kingdom of animals” or in the “community of Humans” is not a metaphysical classification.
It is a choice of Mind.
A choice of measure.
A choice of responsibility.
And that choice is renewed every single day.
&&&&&&&
The Anonymous Wise One writes:
Life is relentless toward the one who, instead of learning from Nature, claims the right to direct it.
You are and remain a child of “chance” — as a human being, and as a sex. A “child” of coincidence and circumstance. You came into the world without your consent. Your organs and your bodily development likewise function independently of your will. You exist because certain laws outside yourself decree it.
No one, from the first day you beheld the light, promised you immunity. No one promised you would not be diagnosed with illness, would not die young, would not feel pain, abandonment, or become a burden upon the earth. Reversal, change, and differentiation are the fundamental rule of life. These are precisely the natural laws you seek to control and overturn — to subordinate to your own will.
You commit Hubris. At the very moment you readily raise your finger to point toward others whom you call irreverent. Yet their Hubris may contain fewer elements of offense against Nature than yours.
You are an animal. Your difference from the others lies in the Mind. The source of natural morality and the seat of conscience itself. From the moment you were “sealed” as Human, you were endowed with this — the only gift that differentiates you from other living beings.
The Mind holds the reins and constitutes the sovereign difference (the only reason it was granted to you), if it remains PURE and NATURAL. If it becomes unnatural, distorted, and deranged, it ceases automatically to be a gift of Nature and Reason. In such a case, you rightfully rank among the adversaries — among those who oppose the laws and rules of nature and reason.
If you have not realized by now that the “other,” your “neighbor,” of the same biological substance as you — regardless of skin color, origin, race, nation, education, or social status — is born of the same “seed of chance” as you, then you have already taken the worst step toward the alienation of the Mind. That dangerous distance you allowed yourself to traverse automatically places you among the irrational beasts. With all that this implies, for those whose Mind is not darkened, regarding their behavior and reaction toward a wild animal.
“Such a person is more dangerous than a wild beast.”
But,
“How graceful is a human being, when he truly is Human.”
It is your choice whether you belong to the kingdom of animals or to the community of Humans.
Diotima writes:
1. Hubris Toward Nature
In ancient Greek thought, Hubris was not merely arrogance; it was the violation of measure. And every violation of measure inevitably gave birth to Nemesis.
Humanity did not err because it sought knowledge. It erred when it believed it could replace Nature itself.
Science is not Hubris.
The arrogance of omnipotence is.
Technology is not Hubris.
The illusion that we can abolish mortality is.
Civilization is not Hubris.
The denial of limits is.
Nature does not take revenge.
It simply does not negotiate.
2. Birth as Accident – Responsibility as Choice
We enter the world without being asked.
We do not choose sex, body, parents, place, or era.
Here I fully agree with the “Anonymous Wise One”: existence is a fact, not an achievement.
Yet from the moment we acquire consciousness, we cease to be merely the result of coincidence.
We become bearers of responsibility.
Randomness produces the body.
Responsibility produces the Human being.
3. The Mind as Gift and as Danger
For early Greek thought, especially Anaxagoras, Mind (Nous) was the principle that imposed order upon chaos.
The Mind is not merely rational calculation.
It is the capacity to recognize limits.
When the Mind remains clear:
it recognizes our shared biological fate,
it understands interdependence,
it chooses measure.
When it becomes distorted:
it turns difference into enemy,
it baptizes ideology as “natural law,”
it claims privilege at the expense of common essence.
Then the human becomes more dangerous than a beast.
For the beast kills by instinct.
The corrupted Mind kills by idea.
4. Human or Animal?
Biologically we are animals.
Morally we may become Human.
The difference is not in DNA.
It is in the awareness of the “other.”
Whoever denies that the neighbor is born of the same chance as himself has already abandoned the human community.
And then society defends itself as it would against a wild animal:
with fear, isolation, and conflict.
5. The Delicate Boundary
Our era — with biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and genetic intervention — tests limits more intensely than ever before.
It is not immoral to intervene in order to heal.
It is dangerous to intervene in order to dominate natural balance without awareness of consequences.
The question is not:
“Can we?”
The question is:
“Should we?”
And deeper still:
“For whom?”
6. The True Choice
The phrase:
“How graceful is a human being when he truly is Human”
contains the essence of all civilization.
Humanity is not called to become god.
Nor to descend into beast.
It is called to remain human.
And that is not a biological given —
it is a daily decision.