Best of Week: Born Into Brothels

What struck me the most in class this past week was the documentary, Born Into Brothels. While I was aware of such issues in the world, seeing it with my own eyes always makes it real.

To be quite honest, the documentary was extremely sad, but what is even sadder to me is the fact that I have seen things like this before, and they do get my attention and make me want to do something, but I have always allowed their messages to slip to the back of my mind. If I'm letting these issues in the world be forgotten, then I know others are too; probably the majority of people in fact. I'd like to think of myself as a good person; I try to put others before myself when I can, but even I have been too selfish to take the time out of my daily life to give help to those who really need it.

I think part of it is definitely because we, as Americans, are sheltered from most of the world's biggest issues, but unfortunately, that's not the only reason. I believe that as animals on this earth, because that's what we really are, it is in our human nature to be selfish. It is our natural instinct to protect and provide for ourselves instead of worrying about others. There's no shark out in the ocean that chooses to spare a fish because it realizes the fish's mother just died and it's having a bad day. While we are not sharks, we are still animals, and I believe we were all born with similar instincts.

However, we are not just any animal. We have evolved to the point where we can override many of our animal instincts--clearly, or we would all be prancing around naked. We also have the ability to empathize with one another, which I believe is one of the biggest differences between us and other animals. Because of this, it is possible for us to think of how we can help others instead of ourselves for a change of pace, but I think we often default to our natural selfish instincts.

As animals, our lives revolve around eating, sleeping, and reproducing; we must constantly remind ourselves of what we can be, why we are different from other animals, and what we can accomplish to better the lives of others. I'm not saying we should sacrifice everything that we have, but we must be reasonable. We must use our evolved brains and realize that most of what we have we do not really need. We must take the time out of our daily lives to not only empathize, but to put ourselves to use and do something selfless in order to help others.