Friday, March 3, 2017

Empathy

Very disappointed this week to hear some young neoliberal conservatives talk about what we need to happen in the political arena. The statement that stood out to me was the one where this young man asserted that we need to stop being 'politically correct' and make decisions by means of logic rather than empathy. He said 'empathy' in a way that for him put it as synonymous with 'stupidity'. If you want to watch the video concerned, click on this link: Project Segment About Alt-Right Politics.

Some of the FB comments on the video are equally disconcerting. Empathy is one thing we need much, much more of. And that's not just my opinion. David Orr says this:

The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it. (Orr, 2005:96)


According to Daniel H. Pink, emphathy is one of the key qualities we need to make this happen. Without empathy we are likely to have more wars, more racial discrimination and atrocities, more of the things that we really don't want. I recommend those young men concerned start using the right side of their brain instead of aligning themselves to the far right of politics. 





ORR, D. W. 2005. Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (Z. Barlow, Michael K. Stone Ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

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