Ken Hurley
Manavata is in her mid-20s, svelte, curious, astute, a vegan, and loves nature. Tall, a bit boney too. Her garb preferences are dupattā shawls and elephantine dresses that cloak her like they were designed by Coleman, sold at REI, and could cover a small bivouac. Her large, round, deep, dark eyes search for meaningful contact with an intense gaze that says, "I feel you." Her empathic expressiveness oozes from every pore like cheese sauce on a Coney Island hot dog.
Manavata has a hyperactive mirror neuron system that needs constant stimulation. She beams her bright encouraging energy into everyone she meets, then crashes with exhaustion. She often appears to be happy, but most people she meets cause her distress and in the quiet moments of her solitude, tears. Her emotional seismometer swings with an amplitude that rivals Foucault's pendulum.
Her favorite expression is, "That is a crime against humanity!" Said with the confidence of a home plate umpire with new specs.
Crimes against humanity are one of the gravest offenses against human dignity and rights. These crimes typically include the barbaric acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, torture, and enslavement. They are committed by individuals, groups, or governments against civilian populations with the intent to cause sweeping suffering and destruction. "Crimes against humanity" have likely been with us for as long as humanity. However, the phrase was not used until the Nuremberg trials, which were held after the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The International Military Tribunal charged the Nazi leadership with committing a series of atrocities, including genocide against Jews, homosexuals, Romani people, and other minority groups. The tribunal established that these acts were not only illegal, but also represented a fundamental affront to human dignity and rights. The concept was that crimes against humanity constituted offenses against all of humanity, not just against individual victims.
However, the concept of crimes against humanity is not limited to the atrocities committed during World War II. History is rife with examples of mass violence and aggression against civilian populations. An estimated 1.5 Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Empire. The Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia, known as the Khmer Rouge regime, brought us the killing fields, where over one million people were buried after mass killings by state sponsored genocide. The Rwandan genocide saw members of the Hutu ethnic group kill an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and other Hutus who were deemed not correct. Sadly, there are too many more examples of humans committing atrocities against other humans that are considered crimes against humanity.
Manavata has a strong moral outrage that she can not stifle. She thinks weapons manufacturers and arms dealers should be charged with crimes against humanity for making and distributing a variety of death tools that kill millions of humans.
She thinks the meat industry should also be charged with crimes against humanity for being a leading cause of destruction of the planet via cattle flatulence and cow burps which creates more potent greenhouse gasses than Manatava can stomach. But what about all the humans being born who create the need for the meat industry? Humans! They are the number one existential threat to our sustainable survival. Humans are a crime against humanity! But what to do about it? Contraception? Abortion? Stop fucking? Her head spins like a Lipinski scratch twirl.
She also wonders why religions are not considered crimes against humanity. She can not think of a religion that supports itself without proclaiming at its core credo fantastical yet persuasive lies in an effort to solicit the needy, gullible, and their money. She sees religious leaders offering fabricated artificial ingredients while praying for prey to feast upon so they may enrich themselves as they falsely proclaim "The Truth". That is a crime against humanity!
However, Manavata does love the notion of heaven where the mysteries of the cosmos hold their secrets. The birth of stars, the formation of galaxies, and the endless expanse of the universe. Heaven would be the ultimate observatory where she could explore the wonders of creation and its transcendent beauty where her senses are heightened and her mind is elevated. Her poetic nature imagines heaven as an inspirational place of creativity and enlightenment. Where the colors are more vivid, the fragrances more intoxicating, the harmonious sounds are more melodic and blend together in symphonic delight. A place where all the people put love first.
But she wonders why the heaven proffered in The Bible isn’t considered a crime against humanity? Biblical heaven is where God keeps a house and where the believers of religious propaganda go after their last breath. It is a place promised to the "faithful" where there is no more pain or sorrow, and where the "righteous" will be reunited with their family forevermore.
She thinks this is an excellent example of a religious core credo lie. When you tell someone there's a better place but you have to die to have a chance of getting in is a lie that only serves the liars. After you've taken the Stairway to Heaven, you find yourself Knockin' on Heaven's Door only to be judged, and more often than not, be ushered back on the Highway to Hell. What kind of place needs gates to keep you in? Once you're in, there's no way out. She wonders if perhaps we are already in heaven, but our careless taradiddling twaddle has made an unfortunate shambles of it.
Manavata is glad she isn't an actual adjudicator of crimes against humanity. Just thinking about them is emotionally exhausting. Time to crash.
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