Talking to myself (On human dispensability)

“People are the most dispensable items.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because we feel a sense of ownership about things, but the moment we assert it over other human beings we get accused of objectifying them or becoming possessive.”

“But things are dispensable too, aren’t they?”

“They are disposable. You know how long they will last when you have them.”

“Not always. Things can break.”

“You are aware of the fragility. You are careful with glass and even more with crystal.”

“What about sturdier things, like iron rusting?”

“There is anti-rust.”

“You mean to say things have greater value?”

“They are seen as valuable for what they are. You relish food; you don’t expect it to last a lifetime. The ones that last longer have preservatives.”

“Buy you do not get attached to any of these…”

“It is not a question of attachment, but dependency. I need food, I need clothes…I need things to cook in and a place to put the garments in. These are needs. And it is accepted. No one raises moral and ethical questions about it.”

“They do about people?”

“Yes. All the time. We depend on all kinds of relationships – some we are born into and some acquired. These too are needs, but for all the emotional talk, they are the most elastic.”

“So how far does one stretch it?”

“That is the point. It depends on such whims, which is why I call people dispensable. You have a bank account, the amount of money may change, but that account is yours. Now, with a relationship, the quality and intensity may alter, which is fine, but what if the person goes away? The very basis of the account has gone and you are left holding a few currency notes as a reminder.”

“By this understanding, the person going away has made herself/himself redundant. It isn’t you making the person dispensable.”

“But I become dispensable.”

“And you don’t go away?”

“Of course, I do. Rarely, but I do.”

“Isn’t redundancy different in that it has lived its life?”

“Who is to decide? Fungus on cheese is fungus on cheese, it is not cheese.”

“Does the cheese decide it is inedible?”

“No, though it projects itself as that, and that is when the cheese/person becomes dispensable.”

“And the fungus?”

“It is there as a challenge. Unfortunately, people let the fungus get the better of them and make the whole cheese redundant.”

“Therefore, people are dispensable?”

“Yes. And the cheese can is not. It is often recycled.”

“Can people and relationships be recycled?”

“No. Because the fungus in people is within them.”