Life is incredible.

I know, pretty cliche to say, but still, it’s true. Life is incredible. Just by its nature, being a living human on this planet at any given moment gives you endless incredible possibilities. You can, for example, look outside right now. Depending on where you are located, you may be looking through a window, or maybe all you had to do was just raise your eyes from your phone, and there you have it — life. You might see some kids running by you screaming, a cat taking a nap, or your neighbor giving you an angry look for staring. What you can do in this world full of kids, cats, neighbors, and all kinds of other crazy concepts is pretty amazing. You can go pet the cat, wave hello to your neighbor, climb a random tree nearby, go on a run, eat chips, scratch your nose, or do a million — literally— other things.

You can go online, buy a plane ticket, pack a suitcase, and leave for Australia. No — this isn’t an ad for some tourist agency specializing in vacations to Sydney — it’s just another incredible thing that is physically possible to do. If you ever got the chance to tell someone from the 19th century that you could fly from one country to another in hours, they would most likely burn you as a witch. However, we now have technology that literally (and metaphorically speaking, too) makes us fly. Another example: perhaps you are reading this article from a computer, for example a laptop or mobile phone. As soon as you get bored, all you have to do is open a new tab in Google and search “funny cat videos,” or “top 100 weird science facts,” and boom — you will be entertained for hours. We have constant access to a world full of knowledge, with content about almost anything and the ability to communicate with people from across the globe. Numerous modern technologies not only have created a world in which the previously unattainable and physically impossible becomes a part of our daily routine, but also give us a great privilege: not having to constantly fight for life.

As we know, this was not always the case. For example, let’s take a look at the Paleolithic Era: humans lived a nomadic lifestyle in small groups and provided for themselves by hunting and gathering any food they could find. The problems of such a lifestyle are quite easy to notice. What is important to establish is that the cause of those problems were natural conditions. Surprisingly enough, there isn’t much evidence of wars or violent conflicts between the first humans. Mostly, the life-threatening problems people faced were the same as those of other wild animals: obtaining food (that was nutritious and actually edible), dealing with massive climate changes taking place, and, of course, protecting themselves and their resources from predators. Today, living in a world defined by man, not by nature, most people do not have to face such problems.

One thing that played a crucial role in our ancestors’ survival was our ability to form social networks. Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher who used the term “politics” in his eponymous work, said: “man is by nature a political animal.” From our earliest days, we have created communities, much like other animals do, to help us survive and thrive. Later, people found ways of ruling and organizing those communities. The first human civilization is considered to be Mesopotamia, which existed in the Bronze Age, and one of the first ancient law codes was written by Mesopotamian king Hammurabi in around 1758 BCE. Fun fact — with the first civilisations appeared the first social hierarchies and injustices. People were no longer working to provide all together, but were starting to divide into upper and lower social classes. Since then, many kinds of political governments have existed on earth, many debates and discussions have been held on what the best form of ruling is, and politics have become a complex science.

Another important example of our development is the introduction of money. Humans started trading goods a long time ago — even as far back as the Paleolithic era, when people traded weapons and tools. The first coins appeared in the kingdom of Lydia, around 600 BCE, and have not lost popularity since. Money, physically, holds no real power. It is just metal and paper. Its true value exists in our minds. Yet money is undoubtedly incredibly valuable, because everyone fully agrees with its concept. Isn’t it mindblowing that our world is run by a concept, one so powerful it determines our lives? It goes without saying, all of those societal systems we have created are a great advantage to us. They are what differentiates us from wild animals — the ability to organize and rule our world.

Despite all that, I can bet many of you rolled your eyes when reading the first sentence of this article — “Life is incredible.” It is, but it can be hard to grasp that, and no, not only because “we have to be more grateful.” Somehow, despite the mindblowing possibilities that exist in our incredible, futurized, human-made world, we often don’t even get to enjoy all of that potential. For example, while it is technically possible to fly from one continent to another, this opportunity is not accessible to everyone. The fact is, it’s probably not accessible to you either. Maybe you would really like to, but still — can you really go online and buy a ticket to Australia right this second? Probably not: you may not have the money or a visa, or maybe you can’t leave your work. Despite our endless possibilities, we often have to decline them and suppress our wishes, thanks to social systems we ourselves have created. That is understandable, but why is it necessary?

Of course, much worse issues exist, too. As a society we face massive, life-threatening problems, and those problems differ from the problems of the first humans: they mostly aren’t caused by natural forces, but by human ones. According to the United States Census Bureau and the World Bank, in 2020 37.2 million people in America and 732 million people worldwide lived in poverty. By that, I don’t mean 732 million people could not afford a spontaneous trip to Australia; I mean 732 million people lived on less than 1.90 dollars per day. Poverty is an issue as old as time, or, more specifically, as old as money.

The philosophy of politics is rooted in the very origins of human existence. Although one could imagine that by now it would have evolved enough to find a system that provides freedom to all, while maintaining safety and justice, instead we constantly find ourselves bound by the decisions of our leaders, decisions made not for our safety but for the satisfaction of the few ruling individuals. All over the world, both in the most democratic and dictatorial rulings, people’s fates are decided by their governments. All of these problems are equally as life threatening as the ones concerning our ancestors, but crafted by humans. Now, I am certainly not screaming: “Reject all civilization! Let’s all go back to the good old Prehistoric Era when we didn’t have stuff like development and modernization to deal with!”. The fact that humans have created a compound society that literally lives in its own, human-made world, by its own, human-made rules is certainly worth applauding, in my opinion. That has helped us to create a life that, despite its huge and undoubted flaws, is still quite comfortable for many, especially compared to earlier historical periods, when each day centered around survival. Humans have been developing for around 300,000 years or so. I am sure there are a lot of complicated reasons for why we still are far from achieving freedom, safety, and happiness, reasons I am not qualified enough to explain. But we not only understand our lives and our world, but have defined them, and ensured a life with unlimited potential for enjoyment. So why can’t we work to come closer to a world where that potential is used to its fullest? We built our own world, so why can’t we control it?

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