"Special"

Over at Dodosville, Peter has posted on a common theme of his: we're not special, none of us are, and our collective delusion that we are special is dooming us and quite a few of the species we share this little rock with.
Every time Peter says this, I counter with my own long-held assertion that yes, we are indeed special...but no more special than anyone else.

We both mean the same thing, I think, because it seems like most people are more than willing to hear how special they are, and always seem to fail to hear that they're no more special than anyone--or anything--else. And before long...Ollie (Toby Weeks) said it best in The Mist:

As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?

But, you know..."special" has a different meaning. We use it as a euphemism for "retarded"--which, incidentally, is one of those words that really shouldn't require a euphemism. Look up "retarded" in the dictionary and once you boil away all the pejorative meanings, you'll find this: see this: "relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development". Which may describe certain members of our species; I happen to believe it's also a very good description of our species as a whole.
I mean that in both the literal and figurative sense. Literally, human animals are born utterly defenseless and stay that way for a sizeable chunk of their lifespans, relative to other animal species. Figuratively...well, look around you. Out of all the people you know, how many would you say are fully mentally, emotionally and physically developed? A cursory glance at any newscast or figment of popular culture--the mere fact that one seems to bleed into the other--suggests that indeed, as a species we're, uh, retarded, or "special", if you will. By and large humans overestimate their place in the world while underestimating their impact: these are both hallmarks of immaturity. We are very good at finding ways to divide ourselves; not so good at unity. Again, immature. And we are positively masterful at narrow-perspective, short-term thinking. You guessed it: that's immaturity writ large.

Of course, there's a difference between immaturity and retardation: just because we haven't grown up doesn't mean we're not capable of doing so. And yet...

Human beings have been around in a form we would recognize for thousands upon thousands of years. Several times we have approached a technological explosion (cf. Thera, 1200 B.C.E., the houses of which, like those in ancient Rome over a millennium later, bear a suspicious resemblance to our own) without quite going over the edge. Or perhaps previous societies did manage to obliterate all trace of themselves...I wouldn't discount the possibility. Certainly history is littered with examples of collapsed civilizations. See Ronald Wright's A Brief History of Progress for a concise synopsis, and note that most, if not all, of those vanished empires made the same mistakes we're making now on one scale or another. If "insanity" can be defined as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result", that would be more proof we're collectively nuts. Still.

But then, sprinkled in every generation like little grains of salt in an ocean of pepper, come people who you'd be proud to call human, people who inspire those around them to new heights. Again, on different scales: one mother might stand as a shining example to her children; one child might grow up to be a Messiah.
(A close analysis of the stuff Jesus preached illustrates my overarching point: Yeshua bar Yosef believed himself to be special--the Son of God, in fact--but no more special than anyone else. The Romans around him weren't comfortable with either assertion. Neither are we, for the most part: the idea that someone can be special is almost as threatening as the thought that maybe we all are. We tend to crucify people with ideas like that, in one manner or another.)

We are not an unintelligent species, far from it. But we are still, after all these years, deep in adolescence, with its attendant temper tantrums and fits of pique. As we lack any comparatively advanced civilization to measure ourselves against, it's currently impossible to determine whether this adolescence has lasted an unconscionably long time. For what it's worth, I believe it has, that as a species we're developmentally delayed...retarded..."special".