«First of all, I wanted to express my deep gratitude for this extraordinary award that you have given me.
And now, since that’s what it’s about, let’s talk about humanity.
Among what biologists call authentic animals, that is, mammals, man is the the only one who kills his female. And we qualify that act as bestial, since no other beast, outside of us, commits it. That’s humanity.
But there are also humans who lose their lives at the hands of their torturers to protect your fellow menso as not to denounce them, and I know very well what I’m talking about. This is also called humanity.
There are the members of the orchestra who play a symphony and give us the purest form of beautyand there are those who orchestrate wars and that, for every hundred liters of blood spilled, they are awarded a new medal.
And we applaud each other with the same fervor.
With this, I want to tell you that I do not have an idealized vision of humanity and that I, in myself, experience that duality. I accept both my violence and my benevolencealways hoping that the second will prevail over the first.
For a long time I have believed that the key for any human being to live with dignity, so that they never suffered brutality or humiliation because of their sex, their ethnicity or their color, was education. But didn’t you have Goebbels a doctorate in philosophy? Hadn’t Dr. Mengele taken the Hippocratic Oath?
Are we wrong when we define education? Perhaps before raising our children to be economically and socially successful, we should teach them that true success lies above all in humanism.
That what allowed man to place himself above all living beings was that he created societies; and a society only exists because – unlike an animal that is condemned to die when it breaks a leg – we we take care of our fellow men. We carry them on our shoulders and put them to safety.
Man alone does not survive in nature. It only survives by joining with others and creating societies. And the sine qua non condition to achieve this is empathy.
Perhaps in education, instead of teaching our children to learn everything by heart and recite it like parrots, we should teach them ethics, civility and above all compassion and kindness. And I assure you that I am not one of those who turn the other cheek. For a slap received I would return ten, but I try to never be the one who hits the first one.
And finally, I will read you a poem by Saadi, a great Iranian poet of the 13th century:
«Human beings are part of the same body,
and they have the same origin.
When life causes pain to a member
the others do not rest.
You who are indifferent to the suffering of others,
“You don’t deserve to be called human.”
Thank you for listening to me, and to humanity in its entirety.
#Marjane #Satrapi #True #success #lies #humanism
