United We Stand

"One person by himself is not a complete human being"

Frye casually mentions this as he hurriedly rushes along to prove other points, but this quote which has no further elaboration, is quite a profound one. At first it sounds like a paradox, a whole person is indefinetely whole, therefore complete human-wise, but upon further analysis we see that a single person is nowhere near anything that we define humanity by.

Theoretically, if a person were to be solitary all his life, devoid of any human connections of any kind, he would be very little more than a resourceful monkey who walked on two feet. We are designed to interact. Eyebrows are solely for the purpose of obvious expression, huge swathes of our brain are designed to handle language, keep track of relationships, and reason social decisions. If the physical evidence weren't enough the psycho/emotional proofs are more than plentiful. Progress of humanity would be limited to natural selection without the passing of information onto the next generation in any capacity. A lack of feeling, of compassion, would produce harsh creatures void of morality, another vital human trait. McColloughs speech would have no place in a solitary world, without the passing of knowledge learning, information, enriching oneself past the limits of physical health, would all be non-existant. In short, without other humans, being "human" would mean nothing at all.