Humanity

 Humanity is a remarkable concept. The quote (embedded thanks to hark.com), from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, has great and immediate sting. 

From the beginning of recorded history, H. Sapiens have identified themselves by family, tribe, and clan. Perhaps by city or even by state, and on the broadest level, by things such as religion and culture. Each time H. Sapiens' world got a little bigger, they found a new name for it. The concept of humanity is no different, its a name we have chosen for ourselves.

But the word Humanity* has another meaning. You've heard it in at least one B-Movie.

The helpless hero or heroine shouts at the apparently-triumphant villain, Have you not a drop of humanity in you?

And the villain doesn't. Even if he doesn't rip off a rubber mask and claim descent from some other species, if the villain had an ounce of compassion they couldn't become a villain.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should remember another meaning for humanity: frailty. We're every kind of imperfect. Goes with being human. God knows humans are often anything but humane to one another, even within the same family. Yet we do aspire to be better. And that is the truth of Star Trek, its deepest and most holy belief, than humanity wishes...

See, humanity is the name we chose for ourselves. When humans do go out to the stars, and if we should meet some other sort of people, we want them to know us for our humanity. We, as a species, wish to be known for our compassion, our benevolence, and our goodwill. If, in our frailty, we do not forget that, then whatever our troubles, we have hope.

*(in English, anyway so probably in Latin too, and its another research project to see if other languages have the same thing I noticed)