Towards a More Humane World

Several years ago, before the pandemic, I had a memorable conversation over coffee in Santander with the Spanish primatologist Pablo Herreros Ubalde. During that conversation, he said something that stayed with me: we are becoming dehumanised.

At the time, I struggled to understand what he meant. We were living in a technologically advanced world, connected across countries and cultures in ways previous generations could barely have imagined. We had access to more information, more communication, and more opportunities to understand one another. How, then, could we be moving backwards as human beings?

Over time, and through the events we have collectively experienced, I began to understand the magnitude of his words. Technology can connect us, but it cannot teach us how to care. Progress can make our lives faster and more efficient, but it does not automatically make us more compassionate, respectful, or emotionally aware.

A more humane world cannot be built through technology alone. It must begin with the way we understand ourselves and the way we learn to relate to others.

We Cannot Give What We Have Never Learned to Receive

Our first experiences of affection usually come from parents, caregivers, or the people responsible for our safety and development. During childhood, love is communicated through attention, respect, encouragement, patience, and emotional presence. A child who feels seen, valued, and accepted begins to develop an inner sense of worth.

This does not mean that childhood must be perfect. No family is perfect, and no parent or caregiver can meet every emotional need at every moment. But affection, safety, and respect create important foundations for adult mental and emotional health.

When people grow up without these experiences, they may spend much of their lives learning what love, trust, and emotional safety feel like. This is why humanity begins not only with what we give to others, but also with what we have learned to receive.

We cannot easily offer compassion if we have never experienced it. We cannot build peaceful relationships if we have never learned to feel safe within ourselves. We cannot consistently respect others while believing that our own needs, emotions, and wellbeing do not matter.

Self-Love Is Not Selfishness

Throughout life, each person faces the difficult task of developing a healthier relationship with themselves. Yet many of us have been taught that prioritising our wellbeing is selfish. We feel guilty when we rest, pursue something that makes us happy, or create time for ourselves. We may believe that caring for ourselves means taking something away from our families, work, or responsibilities.

But self-love is not self-absorption. It is the ability to recognise our dignity, understand our needs, and take responsibility for our emotional and physical wellbeing.

Self-love also means allowing ourselves to be surrounded by people who support our growth. These are the people who accept us without requiring us to abandon who we are, who celebrate our achievements, and who remain present during moments of difficulty.

Healthy love does not ask us to disappear. It allows us to become more fully ourselves. When we are at peace with who we are, we become less dependent on controlling others, seeking constant validation, or competing for emotional security. We become more capable of listening, apologising, cooperating, and loving without possession.

Self-Knowledge Creates Better Relationships

Self-knowledge requires space. It asks us to spend time in silence, reflect honestly on our behaviour, recognise our strengths, and identify what we still need to learn. It is not only about focusing on weaknesses. It is also about understanding what gives us energy, what brings us tranquillity, and what kind of life feels meaningful.

In busy lives, we often spend so much time responding to the needs and expectations of others that we gradually lose contact with ourselves. We stop asking important questions: Who am I becoming? What do I value? What brings me peace? What kind of impact do I want to have on the people around me?

These questions do not have quick answers. They require time, reflection, and the willingness to be honest with ourselves. Self-awareness also allows us to recognise when we have caused harm. To love is not to believe that we are always right. It is to remain humble enough to acknowledge mistakes, repair relationships, and continue learning.

Respect, tolerance, dialogue, freedom, and emotional responsibility are not abstract ideals. They are daily practices.

Humanity Extends Beyond the Individual

The Andean-Amazonian philosophy of Buen Vivir, or Good Living, offers a broader understanding of wellbeing. It suggests that a meaningful life is not based only on individual achievement or material progress. It is also rooted in harmony with other people, communities, animals, plants, and nature.

From this perspective, self-love is not the final destination. It is the beginning of a wider responsibility.

To be humane is not simply to feel affection for the people closest to us. It is to live with empathy, cooperation, respect, and responsibility towards forms of life beyond ourselves.

Without these qualities, societies become more violent, fragmented, and indifferent. When empathy disappears, people become problems to defeat rather than human beings to understand. When dialogue disappears, difference becomes threatening. When cooperation disappears, survival becomes an individual competition rather than a shared responsibility.

Healthier People Help Build Healthier Societies

A society is shaped by the emotional health of the people who inhabit it. People who have never learned to recognise their own pain may express it through aggression, control, intolerance, or emotional distance. By contrast, people who develop greater self-awareness are often better prepared to listen, cooperate, take responsibility, and respond to conflict without dehumanising others.

This is why caring for our mental and physical health is not merely a private act. It is also a social responsibility.When we care for ourselves, we become better able to care for our families, colleagues, communities, and the people whose lives cross our own.

Families play a particularly important role. They are often the first spaces in which children learn respect, dialogue, empathy, and moral responsibility. These children later become professionals, leaders, parents, neighbours, and citizens. The values practised in everyday family life eventually enter workplaces, institutions, and nations.

A more humane society is therefore not created only through laws, systems, or public declarations. It is created through thousands of daily choices about how we speak, listen, care, forgive, and take responsibility.

Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

We are entering a future in which artificial intelligence will increasingly influence how we work, communicate, learn, and make decisions. These developments offer extraordinary possibilities. But the more powerful our technology becomes, the more important our humanity will be.

Artificial intelligence can process information, identify patterns, and increase efficiency. It cannot replace the moral responsibility to use those capabilities wisely. A technologically advanced society is not necessarily a humane one. The future will depend not only on what machines are capable of doing, but also on what human beings choose to value.

Emotional intelligence, compassion, ethical judgement, cooperation, and respect will not become less important in an age of artificial intelligence. They will become essential. We must learn to create a world in which technological progress and human development evolve together.

The Search for Humanity Begins Within

The journey towards a more humane world begins with the desire to become better people. It begins when we care for our health, examine our behaviour, and recognise that the way we treat ourselves influences the way we treat others.

It continues when we choose dialogue over aggression, humility over certainty, cooperation over indifference, and respect over control.

We may not be able to transform the entire world at once. But we can influence the environments we enter and the people whose paths cross ours. We can leave behind moments of kindness, understanding, encouragement, and dignity.

A healthier and more humane world will be built by healthier and more self-aware human beings.

From self-knowledge comes self-respect. From self-respect comes the capacity to respect others. From that respect can grow stronger families, more compassionate communities, and societies that value both progress and humanity.

The world does not become more humane by accident. It becomes more humane when each of us decides to begin within.

About the Author

Dr. Elena Baixauli is a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a distinguished professional with 28 years of experience across psychology, mediation, sexology, conflict resolution, criminology, and mental health. She brings together academic depth, clinical experience and a strong commitment to human-centered conflict resolution and social impact.

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