Leading An Empathy Revolution
We all probably have our short list of the great dangers our world faces. Indeed, since the development and use of the atomic bomb, psychologists have talked about the “free-floating” anxiety of our time, an unnamed but nearly all-pervasive concern about the fate of ourselves and the world.
So what’s on your list? Environmental degradation? Diminishing fossil fuels and other natural resources? Overwhelming poverty? The chance of devastating war? Certainly those are all on my list, too. But above all of them is my concern that we are increasingly living fractured lives, disconnected from each other and all too-often separated from meaningful community. Why am I worried about this? Because not only is it difficult to accomplish much of significance apart from cooperative groups, it’s also far more difficult to develop that most necessary of human traits: empathy.
Empathy, in short, is the ability to take on the emotional perspective of another. Apart from empathy, and we turn inward into our selves, are unable to imagine the realistic needs of others, and do all manner of harm to those with whom we can neither sympathize nor identify.
Unfortunately, indicators suggest that empathy is on the decline. There are several reasons, but two stand out to me. First, in a time of great change, one of the things we have done to alleviate the tension change invites is to define ourselves increasingly narrowly, carving religious or ethnic identities and boundaries more sharply than previously. While a robust and well-defined identity is central to flourishing, drawing the lines between our tribe and those around us too sharply for the sake of clarity can render those who belong to other groups as “other,” somehow not just different but also less fully human.
Second, while it’s too early to make any overarching judgments on the internet and social media, early research suggest that people today feel simultaneously more connected and more lonely. We are connected, that is, to all kinds of persons but feel that we know few of them well enough to believe they love and accept us. In an environment of emotional and existential scarcity, it’s difficult to reach out to help – and be helped by – others.
I’m sure there are other reasons as well, but if we want to cultivate empathy as a value that may help us transcend some of the great political, religious, and ideological divides that have plagued our times, we’re going to need to be intentional and active. Philosopher Roman Krznaric lays out a plan for actively increasingly empathy. Indeed, he wants to start an “Empathy Revolution”
His suggestions are broad, creative, and often remarkably available to us. Watch his Ted Talk and see which ones you respond to and can implement. And then give some thought – and action! – to what you can do to spread the empathy revolution.
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“Second, while it’s too early to make any overarching judgments on the internet and social media, early research suggest that people today feel simultaneously more connected and more lonely.”
A social scientist engaged by Google recently presented at UofMich the effects of social media. His finding was both exiting–Google is effective at aiding social connections–and disheartening–it is not a deep connection. We do not look each other in the face; we look at a screen. And this is distancing and isolating. To see the effects he says, “Go to NYC. It’s already happened. People everywhere talking to their screen and not seeing the person on their right, or left, or in front of them.”