The Empathy Gap
I think I have done this one before, but I’ve slept since then it probably bears repeating anyway. I found a fascinating book about evil. It is called “The Science of Evil” and it looks at people would label as sociopaths or psychopaths. The entire premise of the book was that “evil” is what I would lovingly call a “variable absolute.”
The concept of evil is culturally based and therefore almost meaningless on its own. Our enemies become evil, but the fact that we look at the world through a prism of allies and enemies might itself be a sign of distress. So, evil has no useful definition that we can use in a clinical sense. There are certainly individual acts we would all recognize as evil, but if you cannot accurately define it then it is impossible to study it in any significant way.
So what Simon Baron-Cohen (the author of the book) does is look at what traits we commonly see in those people that commit acts that we would commonly recognize as evil. It certainly makes sense. How do you know that someone young has the potential to grow up into a monster?
More importantly, can we change this before it happens? What Baron-Cohen noticed is that people we commonly refer to as evil all have one thing in common. They either have little or no empathy. Good and evil is a hit or miss proposition. Empathy is something we can focus on cultivating. It is something we can teach in our schools, our homes, and houses of worship.
Empathy doesn’t require posting something like the ten commandments. It doesn’t require the imposition of values. It simply requires that we teach young people to see a world outside of themselves. It requires taking those painful moments we all experience and using them to understand when someone else might be going through a similar moment.
As hard as we might try, there are some people that are too psychologically damaged to learn empathy. I have a masters degree in counseling, but I haven’t done the research like Baron-Cohen. I couldn’t tell you if that is a failure on our part or if someone is destined never to learn it. I certainly think there are plenty of anecdotal examples on both counts.
What we can do is prioritize empathy in leadership positions. We cannot force everyone to have empathy, but at least we can incentivize it. We can make sure that the leader of the free world, our schools, places of business, and everything in between are caring people. It is a basic test we used to pass with great regularity. It is a basic test we have failed in recent decades.
When we don’t prioritize empathy we hurt ourselves in multiple ways. First and foremost, when we have leaders that lack empathy, they are unable to make decisions that consider the feelings and well-being of those in their organization. Decision are self-serving and therefore only benefit the leader and those that happen to have the same needs.
The secondary consideration might be the more long-term reason. If I want to be a leader I will model myself after the leaders that I know and respect. If the leaders I know have no empathy then I will think it is okay not to have any empathy. I will think that is the proper way to be a leader. In other words, empathy isn’t an added bonus, but a prerequisite.
Empathy keeps us from hurting people physically and psychologically. Some might label that as a conscience or moral compass. In reality it is empathy. We understand it because we can imagine it being done to us. Empathy is basic, but we can’t take it for granted. More and more people lack it and more and more people don’t seem to mind.
You need to read The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson — sociopaths and the “madness” industry. BTW he notes that 95% of sociopaths are in jail, the other 5% run mega companies!
1“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” Granny Weatherwax.
2Grandma Ada, and inside that 5% is someone running for president right now, and should be in jail.
3As for empathy, try to find one instance where drumpf showed any, including his 4 years in the White House.
Steve from Beaverton says:
“As for empathy, try to find one instance where drumpf …”
Yes.
4Trump would throw anyone under the bus for the slightest infraction. Even family.
To paraphrase Ken Kesey, you’re either on the Trump bus, or under the Trump bus.
Simple observation, ramblings, on my layperson’s part at old age. IMO, humans as we know them are in a world of opposites; eg, up vs down, hot vs cold, left vs right, good vs bad etc and importantly, can’t have a god without a corresponding opposite; the devil, satan. Nearly everything we do involves some kind of choice but we don’t think about that because most of these change situations are minor and so repetitive being inconsequential. Until something stands out above the ordinariness.
5From a long time interest in history, it seems that every group, nation, whether isolated in a jungle from at least modern humans seem also to have a common consciousness; some kind of god and some kind of afterlife. It is as if this is built into the genetic code.
So, does any challenge to some of this as in atheism, agnosticism , require acknowledgement of the existence of what is not supposed to be existing?
All that one needs to do is practice “The Golden Rule”, to live an empathetic life. Even as a non-theist, Matthew 7:12 says all the Bible needs to say about living the good life.
6van heldorf, whether or not your question is rhetorical, I’ll give it a go.
7And the answer depends on who’s asking the question.
Cuz IMHO if it’s for traditionally religious folks the answer is yes.
Cuz IMHO most of those folks in this day and age can’t see anybody not them as being worthy of empathy.
So they can’t imagine them being empathetic. Because nobody not them would be empathetic to them.
Starting to see a pattern?
Here’s the thing about Combover Crime Lord. He wants to think of himself as a ‘tough’ guy. Lots of seventh-grade boys feel the same way.
He thinks bullies are tough guys, so he celebrates and uplifts bullying and bullies. All his best friends are bullies.
And the NSGOP is right there with him.
8Seems as if the empathic sorts are doomed to pick up the debris left behind by those that are not. What a cruel joke way to get a totally secure job.
9Another great book on the subject – Without Conscience by Robert Hare, the seminal researcher on psychopathy. (See: The Hare Checklist if you ever want to see what the diagnosis is based on.) Hare would say you cannot teach empathy to a psychopath – the wiring isn’t there to develop it, just to imitate it so they can scam others more easily; but you can certainly strengthen it in everyone else.
10That’s kind of what I was driving at Opinionated Hussy. Different psychologist/psychiatrists have varying philosophies on whether psychopathy is learned or inherent. Take Orange Jesus. His mother was largely absent due to illness and his father was a sociopath/psychopath himself so that current runs both ways. it could be that his upbringing guaranteed that he would become one. It could have also been passed down genetically from dad. I’m not going to speculate as to which one is which.
The main thing is that we need to learn to spot these guys and gals and do what we can to make sure they don’t bumble their way into positions of leadership. My fear is that there are enough people out there that either wish they could be that way or are that way and so they crave that in their leaders. It is a feature and not a bug.
11The textbook description of someone with minus zero empathy (and a psychopath)- laura loony loomer:
https://www.rawstory.com/gus-walz/
12And you can add ann coulter-
https://www.rawstory.com/ann-coulter-gus-walz/
13Ann Coulter is a sick person. Now, fellow Democrats, it’s our fault she got on elon’s social network to badmouth Gus Walz for being emotional when his dad was on stage speaking. He’s capable of pride and empathy, while she is a deplorable human being. Her parents must be so proud.
https://www.rawstory.com/ann-coulter-tim-walz/
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