An Attempt At Thinking: Who, When, Where, and How Is A Person?

Walking their dogs, reading on the subway, looking at a painting in a museum, wearing a bizarre hat, holding hands, all in a 2.0 zoom, visible for no more than 3 seconds. Meet the anonymous characters of the videos of “people being people” that I have been seeing on Instagram and TikTok. 

Those videos always gave me a sort of ‘hmmm…’ value, but I would brush off my slight uneasiness as the inevitable effect of the day’s 3rd coke zero and, as it turns out, avoid an existential crisis. One of the days when I was too lazy to go buy one, the video popped up on my explore page. The feeling was not gone, so I sat with it. Little by little, drop by drop, sentences, questions, memories, started leaking into my brain, and before I knew it, my head was underwater. 

It seemed to me then that I have never been given the clear definition of a person. Having typed this sentence I apologize to any teacher that has ever tried to teach me something about philosophy. In all honesty, watching those videos, the connection was not obvious.  

What makes me a person, I thought? The answer was not immediate, and I did get a little stressed there for a second, not going to lie. But okay: senses!! I could feel the chair underneath me, I could hear my neighbor talking on the phone, I could smell red bull (concerningly, I did not know where from). I assumed that this makes me at least a human, and probably my ability to reflect on it, a person. 

I went back to the videos. Senses were involved, but that can’t be everything, no, I thought. The dog most definitely felt the blowing wind and shining sun.

I decided to put some of my university education to use and thought about the fiasco that “The Leviathan” was. In the end, the state of nature is supposedly some pure version of people (or humans? now I understand why it was easier to just say “men”).  Because the video presented the opposite of violence, hostility, and crime, which I think were quite trendy in Hobbes’ conception of this natural condition, I assumed that those accounts were fully exclusive. I guess the video would have been taken down then anyway – typical suppression of true personhood by society.

Because I was pretty sure that a person is not a dog, I decided to dwell on it. But how is it, apart from the difference of form, that I can assert this distinction? He’s being walked, was the signal sent by an unknown part of my human brain. And the people are not…, another one answered. Free will. Most definitely something to do with people. But would not the dog go pee without the owner anyway? It would probably pee more freely than anyone.

If people being people is supposed to transcend biology, then there must be more to it. Doing the exact opposite of what you should do in the very moment, taking the utility-minimizing option is what makes me a person more than anything. I can choose to manipulate myself if I want to, more than anything, I can hold my pee in for longer than that dog.

Wow, big words. But they are, maybe, right? That is as equal a confirmation of my free will as my ability to scream at the top of my lungs when people are making animal noises in the bunker.

At that point the concerning proximity of a person and a dog, and the concept of utility, turned my attention to the man in the funny hat. There is often a part of me that wants to do things just because. For lack of the better word, I call it “the vibe”. It picks my outfits, the seat I sit in, the music I play. Certainly, a dog can also be vibing on the walk, but does it know it is? 

Now, because I have read writings of philosophers and saw how unapologetically they hypothesize and go off track, let me attempt the same. So let’s say, yes, doing what you feel like doing, what you enjoy, makes you a person, the people in the videos are the expression of such an identity. But does that mean that if I am “studying” – and I say that in the most hypothetical way possible –  for my computer science Python exam I cease to be a person and one could kill me without much consequence? Well, hopefully not, but my contorted and tensed body sitting in front of the computer would certainly not make the cut for the reel. Maybe it is just a mere means of calming myself down, but I guess that because I am a person, I am able to overcome the feeling of disgust as I look at the Python commands, in order to graduate from a major that (I think) I truly want to graduate from?

Fortunately, I was not calm for long. “Want”. Do I really want to, or do I just *think* I want to? Do I really like beer or do I *think* I like beer.  

Pulp fiction, my brain replies.  I again agree (by now I have figured that I am also my brain, might be why we are so compatible). People make sense of the surrounding world by means of pop culture, consequently constructing their identity through a “pick and choose what’s on their screen” process. Marilyn Monroe, Big Macs, Elvis Presley unite people in the movie and allow comprehension. There is a loss of a bigger meaning and a loss of the self, people just reproduce, no filter needed. God might be dead, but we have thankfully managed to replace him.

I am going to argue that this mindless disorientation is quite dehumanizing. Maybe I’m alone in this but I have acquired the skill of determining whether or not I like a piece of music only quite recently. Sometimes I just subconsciously assumed that I like a song because it was on the radio, it was from a genre I liked or a popular artist. Only after asking myself the question of “why do I like this particular song?” or “what do I like about this piece” and exercising my mind, I finally thought I knew what I enjoy, which seems so simple, but is not. I feel more connected to myself – as a person.

The constant calls for “soberness” and “rationality” we hear from each outlet possibly also play a role in how we alienate ourselves from ourselves and from the world for fear of coming off as fragile, thereby loosing passion – for life. The dog will not feel passionate about the sun (probably?), but we can and should!

So going back to those videos, how many of the activities are done with conscious enjoyment? 

I decide to pack my suitcase and embark on the journey to find all the people from the videos and find out. Once I am back, I will let you know.