Has Humanity Lost Its Humanity?

We've built a comfortable world for ourselves, but we have lost the purpose to live in it.

There are days when I look around and wonder: what are we even doing anymore? We’ve sent rockets to space, built cities that never sleep, and developed systems so complex they barely hold themselves together. And yet, something fundamental feels lost.

Has humanity lost its humanity?

What do we mean when we use that word, humanity? Is it love, compassion, empathy, kindness? Or does it also include our flaws, our failures, our mistakes? Are the darker parts of us equally human? Jealousy, fear, judgment?

From a biological perspective, everything we feel is human. But in everyday language, we tend to reserve the word humanity for the better parts of ourselves. Love sits at the center of that definition. Especially conscious love, the kind we believe separates us from other animals. The kind we celebrate in poetry, protect in philosophy, and chase in every personal connection.

Yet we’ve wrapped ourselves in such elaborate systems: social norms, economies, political ideologies, that we’ve drifted from that core. We’ve become experts at pretending. We hide behind Instagram filters and status updates. We polish our public image while suffocating in private silence. We show success, not sadness. We pose strength, but rarely admit when we’re scared or broken.

And even when we do open up, is it truly for healing? Or for visibility, validation, or control of the narrative? How much of what we share is real, and how much is curated to fit into a world built on judgment?

If an alien species tried to understand us by observing our behaviors, they would be confused. We expose our skin at the beach but call it unprofessional at work. We idolize rebels, yet punish nonconformity. We claim to value honesty, but reward those who perform best. Our rules make no sense, and yet we follow them blindly.

We live on a planet we didn’t create, and yet we’ve divided it into parcels, declared ownership, and killed over borders. We talk about peace, but fund wars. We claim equality, but build hierarchies. We praise kindness, but reward power.

The world feels broken. Not because people are evil, but because we’ve normalized fakeness.

Even in places where we should be most human, like work or relationships, the facades persist. People write posts on LinkedIn about empathy and innovation, while behind closed doors, they ghost candidates, manipulate metrics, or chase numbers over meaning. We’ve confused language with truth.

So back to the question: has humanity lost its humanity?

I think most of us still crave love. We want to be seen, heard, accepted. But we chase it through filters, masks, and curated identities. We fear being real, because real gets judged. But what if we dropped the act? What if we dared to show up fully: the sadness, the weirdness, the awkward pauses, the beauty, the fart jokes, the anger, the joy?

If we could all be real, the real magic might finally begin.

So here’s the call:

  • Try saying what you really mean.

  • Try showing who you really are.

  • Try letting others see you without the polish.

Because maybe humanity isn’t lost. Maybe it’s just buried beneath everything we were told to be.