What Does It Mean To Be Human

 Finals Paper for HON 1000: Cultures and Social Systems at Seattle Pacific University

Humanity in Observation: How Individuality is Granted

Human Essay: Coffeeland

 Product Production and Labor Exploitation

In daily life, modern contributors to society consistently reap the benefits of exploitation, whether it is known to them or not. The foundations of many companies and industries contain rich and complicated histories of exploitative bosses and enslaved or confined workers. Many enterprises today thrive under similar circumstances, from food production to sectors such as fast fashion. One of the most common items of daily use in modern society is coffee, a fast-growing essential in global society over the past decade. Augustine Sedgewick’s Coffeeland explores the growth of coffee as a worldwide value and the complicated history behind its success. The book follows the story of James Hill, an English businessman who was given the title of the “coffee king” of El Salvador after his widespread success establishing successful coffee plantations, and the historical events that followed and surrounded coffee’s intricate history. To be human in this book is to have control, whether that be for the benefit of yourself or others. 

James Hill, while not an admirable role model by any means, was undisputed as an immensely successful businessman. The majority of this success, however, came from his intense control and exploitation of over five thousand workers on his land. Sedgewick chronicles Hill’s life, elaborating on the struggles he underwent establishing his plantations, but also defines him by his control and cruelty. Hill often mistreated his workers, creating a strict reliance on their employers for both food and pay. These areas of control reduced workers to a bare level, nearly defining them as machines which require food and money to produce valuable output. Hill understood how unhealthy this reliance was for the workers, and how profitable it would be for him. Dehumanization in the narratives of both Hill and his workers is seen when control is exercised unfairly, resulting in the reduction of human workers to a product-producing system. This effect is, without a doubt, still examined in modern markets, though there are attempts to disguise abuse by promoting the success or well-being of a company. In the case of Hill’s plantations, his control was lost by history due to a consistent modern trend of the lack of documentation by victims of systematic abuse.

Those able to break free from the confines of this reliance-based dehumanization become human once more, no longer part of a machine. In this way, those within Coffeeland relate to modern workers and modern guidelines of respect and social standing in a workplace. Figures like Hill are identified in their humanity by their reputation and control, while workers are depicted as part of a greater whole, removing their individual control in the process. While this identification could certainly be simple, defining workers as human when they are able to command others as Hill did, this type of thinking will perpetuate the system hosting a growing majority of overlooked working-class civilians. In this book specifically, the characters we see as human have personal agendas, motives, and the control needed in order to both express those emotions and have them remembered. In the act of reading this book, readers are made aware that systems that seek to dehumanize workers will be examined and criticized, warring against Hill’s plans of mindless control.

In our modern world of ever-growing markets, we as consumers need to be aware of the origins of the products we purchase and support. Reading narratives like those presented in Coffeeland aids in our understanding of the world we contribute to, and I believe that it is the responsibility of anyone who contributes to a market to examine the causes which they are supporting. If money or support is given without thought, consumers run the risk of directly supporting a cause that endangers human lives or safety. It is inevitable to completely avoid markets that dehumanize, as almost every product we consume can be traced back to some event of exploitation. However, there are ways for consumers to grant themselves more awareness of the systems they support, whether that be through research or personal investigation. Coffeeland is by no means a unique story, as the events within it are eerily similar to labor exploitation in both past and present industries. 

One recently publicized example of exploitation is the fast fashion industry, specifically brands such as Shein, Aliexpress, or Wish. Shein in particular is a popular clothing brand known for both its large selection of styles and cheap prices, two details that prompted further investigation by consumers. It has been revealed in recent months that Shein not only is exploiting a large field of workers, but that the brand also consistently steals designs from small businesses and even other online clothing brands. A consumer with no knowledge of these details sees a convenient, inexpensive way to “fit in” with current fashion trends, but someone who knows of the company’s inner workings is given a choice whether or not to support them, which is the purchaser’s humanity coming into play.

While I personally have never had an interest in fast fashion, I have attempted to be more conscientious about where I spend my money, which is a choice I am privileged to have. For example, staying away from corporations like Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby due to their exploitative pasts and practices has been a small exercise of understanding for me personally, and while I know it isn’t much, there is only so much we as individuals can do to prevent these markets from practices they have been engaging in for decades. Times like this may seem hopeless, as we read stories of exploitation infecting many of the products we use daily, but books like Coffeeland bring awareness to the past in order to attempt prevention in the future. It is the responsibility of those outside of these controlling systems to educate themselves and attempt to restore the humanity of those trapped within.

Human Essay: Pale Rider

 The Morality of Mortality

Over humanity’s collective history, some of the most disastrous large-scale events have been shrouded in the unknown. One of the most common fears present throughout time is the act of not knowing, a person’s inability to grasp the full extent of a situation due to a lack of evidence, information, and experience. This comes into play in human against human tragedy, but also in the case of a “human against nature” event such as a pandemic or natural disaster. The scenario of pandemics causing mass panic and upset isn’t foreign to us in current times due to the ever-present Coronavirus-19 pandemic, but the 1918 “Spanish” Flu is another example of a wide sweep of uninformed disease. In Pale Rider: The 1918 Spanish Flu and How It Changed the World, Laura Spinney paints a picture of one of the most deadly pandemics in recent centuries, following the sickness itself as it swept the globe. Within her book, Spinney elaborates on the history of a disease that is often overlooked, although its death toll was at least twice that of the war that overshadows it in history books. In the context of our question regarding the presence of humanity in this text, while Spinney doesn’t focus on a specific person or group, the presence of humanity permeates the text’s very core. To be human within Spinney’s context is to have mortality and the ability to process and interpret that which is beyond your lifespan and experience.

One of the many reasons for the near-erasure of the 1918 flu’s history was the presence of not one, but two world wars happening near the time of this pandemic. In this case, many surviving civilians influenced by the plague’s wide reach chose to focus on something explainable, as many of the facts behind this epidemic are still unknown. In the 1940s, more research was done on the effects of the flu itself, but to those having just survived it, twenty years is more than enough time to make the decision of suppressing their memories of this event that wrapped the globe. Within the text, those introduced or mentioned, even in large groups, are defined by their mortality and willingness to remember and process the story that Spinney is seeking to tell. Many grotesque and graphic depictions of the pandemic itself aid in the reader’s understanding of these people, such as Spinney’s mention that, “as long as you were conscious, therefore, you watched death enter at your fingertips and fill you up” (Spinney, 2017, p. 45). It is not difficult to understand why watching over fifty million people worldwide meet that fate would result in not only generational trauma but an inclination to process the more presentable tragedy at the time, the war. 

In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, one with a significantly lower death toll, the urge to hide these situations is still present. Many people within society seek a “return to normal,” a nearly impossible feat in the current time frame, especially since these people are often the ones foregoing vaccines for comfortable ignorance. This situation is where dehumanization comes into play, in the case of both pandemics. This dehumanization isn’t waged at a person or ethnic group, but at the large percentage of those affected by the tragedy at play. When any large-scale catastrophe is minimized, those affected by it are reduced to unnamed casualties. While examining those against COVID-19 precautions for any reason, it is important to remember the names they are covering up in order to do so. This statement does not address the harm these outliers could be bringing upon themselves and their communities, but they are often willing to be selfish in a way directly opposed to Spinney’s mention of selfishness within the text.

Spinney states that, within the context of being a citizen in the 1918 Spanish Flu, “your best chance of survival was to be utterly selfish…jealously guard your hoard of food and water, and ignore all pleas for help” (Spinney, 2017, p. 116). While this selfishness aligns very well with the Center for Disease Control’s recommended social distancing procedures, the selfishness most often seen in the current day is the opposite, a complete disregard for those around you, with the mentality of “once I get the virus, I’ll be over it and therefore immune.” While this attitude isn’t factually incorrect, it ignores the effects of being an asymptomatic carrier, or possibly creating a domino effect targeting those closest to the person reentering the world “normally.”

It is our responsibility, both in the case of the 1918 Spanish Flu and our current pandemic, to remember the effects of our actions both scientifically and socially. Helpful actions like social distancing are highly recommended in both cases, and a large portion of modern citizens align with CDC guidelines for safety at this time. However, there are always outliers, and it is our job to attempt to understand the situations taking place, and learn what our parts are in maintaining the collective well-being of our societies. It is our duty as members of society to seek an understanding of what ails society as a whole, especially in cases that are easy to dismiss, such as an invisible, unknown disease. While I cannot sympathize with those who act out against the guidelines aimed at keeping them and their communities safe, I can understand their fear stemming from a lack of information and guidance. Overall, in both the 1918 flu and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, humanity is demonstrated through the effects of the disease on a population and culture, most notably in record-keeping and rule-following. Learning from the 1918 flu’s erasure, the current pandemic should be documented extensively, which it has been, and used as an example for future generations of the importance of understanding.