A Measurement of Humanity

   Humanity may be viewed as something abstract and undefined however form my point of view humanity is the individual or collective value of life and what the giving or taking of a life means to you. War being the individual and collective loss of humanity is where humanity in one's self is best measured. War is the loss of humanity however it's still a part of us humans and it occurs when our instinct over powers our humanity. Lazzaro is a perfect example of a torn man with almost no humanity left since for him taking a life isn't such a big deal, he might even like it or consider it "sweet". On the other hand Billy goes crazy, this is a huge factor that proves how deeply humanistic Billy was. When he witnesses the major collective loss of humanity during war, his spirit weakenss and since he has such a humanistic view of life that know faces such unhuman actions he losses his mind.

    Understanding humanity and why is it so unhuman is hard if you are on any of the far sides like Lazzaro or pre-war Billy, however post war, PTSD Billy has a cinical way of viewing humanity that serves a a middle ground since its almost emotionally-unatached kind of objective, with out despaising or resenting humanity. Thats were relativism, the Trafalmadorians ideology and fourth dimension fit, they are the very complex, and mind-bottling grey are on humanism. This middle ground may be hard to understand and cope with to some because most people are on either extreme, wartorn people thinks it's all "bullshit" and the people that have never witnessed something unhuman thinks it' cinical and horrible and that life is priceless and the most sacred and that the striping of a person's life is totally unthinkable.