treated

by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"

here is a very common expression you hear it every day maybe you use it yourself treated like a human being but what does it mean? does it mean anything? could you explain what it meant to a martian? or to a time traveler from 500,000 b c? how many of the 8 billion other persons on the planet do you treat like a human being? or ever get a chance to? how many of them treat you like a human being ? or get a chance to? how about the people you see and pass by every day? it is not billions but if you live in a city it might be a few thousand two people are sitting in a subway car facing each other but almost surely not looking at each other one could be old, and one young one could be male, and one female or one black and one white or one well off and the other homeless one a criminal and the other a law-abiding citizen, etc etc or - they could be identical in most particulars they don’t want to talk to each other or know each other or meet each other’s eyes or have anything at all to do with each other or have the other think for one second that they might want anything to do with them are they treating each other like human beings?