Weekly Technetic #3: The Third Key
We protect our own, from the family to the species.
Technetism is an all-inclusive human philosophy, and the Third Key emphasizes the word "human" in that phrase. We are all human. Whatever our background, we have that in common, and nothing can take it away from us. Every person living today has a common ancestor, and we are all descended from the same group of humans who lived in an otherwise nondescript corner of Africa some 75,000 years ago. In a very real sense, each one of us is a cousin to everyone else.
Too often, we are told to focus on our differences, but the technetic instead prefers to focus on the similarities. In this way, technetism is very literally a form of humanism, although a form that shares little with more well-known humanist schools of thought. People of every race are human. People of every religion are human. Thus, we believe that everyone everywhere is worthy of love, respect, dignity, and liberty simply by being born. From the technetic point of view, these are the foremost human rights.
That is not to say that all humans are equal in those respects. No, part of being human is recognizing that there are levels, circles, in which we organize those around us. This hierarchy of care starts with the self, as only you can truly know how you feel, what you need, and where you are going. Next is the family, starting with immediate relations---biological parents, children, siblings---and moving outward. These are perfectly natural and rooted in sound reasoning of both the scientific and the spiritual sorts.
Following that is the community, in the vague sense of those living near you. How much this encompasses is a quantity that tends to vary based on location, but it can range anywhere from 100 or so people all the way up to around 30,000. Any more than that, and we begin to lose the cohesion common to towns and small cities. Once that happens, we also lose our individualism, damaging the sense of self.
Larger cities, states (or your country's equivalent), and nations are increasingly larger circles of humanity that create correspondingly smaller amounts of natural love by their members for each other. Beyond that, at the farthest extent, is the human race as a whole, but diluting our love through seven billion souls still can't diminish it to nothing. It must not be allowed to, because we remain human. The person in the world most unlike you is yet more like you than any inhuman organism anywhere in the universe.
In this sense---and only this sense---you as a technetic are allowed to consider yourself superior. Because we are. No animal besides the human can think, reason, speak, and learn as we do. Yes, some can accomplish amazing feats, but no other species has all the tools we do.
Rather than feeling shame about this, as environmentalists and similar anti-human groups would have us do, we should embrace our human nature. We should be proud of our race's accomplishments and wish to see future generations not only build upon them, but surpass them entirely.
As a technetic, you understand that the world belongs to you. To humanity. You are one of many, but one of the best. That isn't because you're black or white, male or female, Christian or Muslim or atheist. It's because you're human. You're a member of the smartest, wisest, most thoughtful, most adaptable species this world has ever seen.