In a memorial service held in Tucson, Arizona for victims of the recent tragedy, President Obama called on Americans to "sharpen our instincts for empathy" so that we can become a more civil people.
The President's call for a more empathic culture and civil society raises the troubling question of "What has gone so terribly wrong with America?" Why are we becoming more aggressive, violent, self-interested and intolerant as a society? The problem goes deeper than just blaming the escalating rhetoric of political pundits and talk show hosts. They are playing off a deeper sensibility that has become engrained in the thinking of many Americans.
It is our core beliefs about the very nature of human beings that make us so susceptible to the rising plague of intolerance that is spreading across the land. The American character was forged, in large part, on a skewed idea about who we are as a people that was spawned several hundred years ago in the Protestant Reformation and English Enlightenment.
From the very moment John Winthrop and his flock of Puritans landed on American shores in 1630, we came to believe that we are God's chosen people and that the Lord has a unique covenant with us that makes us special among the peoples of the world. In our economic life, we have become the fiercest supporters of Adam Smith's belief that the naked pursuit of individual self-interest in the market is the defining feature of human nature. In our political life, we have come to believe in "American Exceptionalism," that our political ideology is somehow superior to all others. In our social life, we are the strongest supporters of Social Darwinism, that life is a combative struggle in which only the strongest survive. These highly regarded core beliefs are antithetical to a mature empathic sensibility.
It's no wonder that when President Obama spoke of empathy during his first year in office and mentioned that it is the guiding philosophical principle in his life, he was pummeled and excoriated in the popular press as being weak and unfit to be the "Commander-in-Chief" of the most powerful nation on Earth.
What is there about the concept of empathy that conjures up so much derision? Why are some so frightened?
Perhaps it's because being empathic requires giving up the pretense of being special and anointed. It means being mindful of other points of view. It means abandoning the idea that rank self-interest governs all behavior. And, most important, it means being open to the plight of others.
New discoveries in human evolutionary development are challenging our long held shibboleths about human nature. We are learning that human beings are biologically predisposed not for aggression, violence, self-interest and pleasure seeking utilitarian behavior but, rather, for intimacy and sociability, and that empathy is the emotional and cognitive means by which we express these drives.
To empathize is to experience another's condition as if it was our own. It is to recognize their vulnerabilities and their struggle to flourish and be. To be able to empathize with another requires that we first acknowledge our own vulnerabilities. It is because we realize that life is fraught with challenges, that we are all imperfect, fragile and vulnerable, that life is precious and worthy of being treated with respect, that we are then able to reach out and, through our empathic regard, express our solidarity with our fellow beings. Empathy is how we celebrate each other's existence. To empathize is to civilize.
Empathy is the real "invisible hand" of history. It is the social glue that has allowed our species to express solidarity with each other over ever broader domains. Empathy has evolved over history. In forager-hunter societies, empathy rarely went beyond tribal blood ties. In the great agricultural age, empathy extended past blood ties to associational ties based on religious identification. Jews began to empathize with fellow Jews as if in an extended family, Christians began empathizing with fellow Christians, Muslims with Muslims, and so on. In the Industrial Age, with the emergence of the modern nation-state, empathy extended once again, this time to people of like-minded national identities. Americans began to empathize with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese. Today empathy is beginning to stretch beyond national boundaries to include the whole of humanity. We are coming to see the biosphere as our indivisible community, and our fellow human beings and creatures as our extended evolutionary family.
This doesn't mean that our national loyalties, religious beliefs and blood affiliations are not important to us. But when they become a litmus test for defining the human sojourn, all other beliefs become the alien other.
For a long time, we Americans have been obsessed with "creating a more perfect union." Maybe it is time to put equal weight on creating a more "empathic society."
Jeremy Rifkin is author of The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis
Rabbi Jennifer Krause: In a Tucson State of Mind: The Sabbath After the Shooting
The consensus right left and center is that Loughner is "deranged," ie a disabled paranoid schizophrenic. He's nothing new in his age group--only the extreme violence. Getting young people with unfolding psychoses into treatment is hard. Our deteriorated mental health system cannot handle the traffic. Inpatient facilities are difficult to access for "involuntary" treatment. Nonetheless, what little chance he had for a normal life is gone in his violent acting out. If he's lucky he'll be acquitted on an insanity plea and locked up in a mental hospital for many years.
Are we ready for empathy yet?
Will our elected officials heed the people's call for a more productive government?
Of course the violence is unacceptable. Of course the tone of discourse is over the top.
But, as more people become over whelmed with the state of our country, and the impact it has on their lives, more craziness will surface.
The shooter in Arizona was a very disturbed individual before he acted out, by all accounts so far. His actions may have had little to do with the political climate, or his own living circumstances. The stim for his actions may well be entirely internal. More to come, for sure.
But...
How much can the average person withstand, and for how long, before they act our as well?
Our elected officials are ineffective, people in our country have had their lives gutted, and many more are teetering on the edge of disaster. Human beings can handle stress to a certain point, but some spin out when all hope is gone and they have nothing to lose. Others act out as their lives slip away as they stand helplessly watching.
Cleanse the rhetoric, but get our politicians off their lazy duffs and get them working on our behalf.
A lot less talk and a lot more action, already. Both parties seem mighty comfy standing near the mess, running their mouthes, doing very little to clean it up.
http://www.e-tabitha.com/
All oppressors of history required quelling dissent.
One day we'll get it right.
This is called human nature.
The best path to a moderate society is through economic well-being and (less importantly) education. America has regressed in education. And opportunity. Economic well-being of most is being neglected and exploited, just as it as always been down through the ages. And, economic well being of people is where you will find moderation.
However, our societies will always be riddled with self-interest. Whether those self-interests are in the minority (and marginalized) or the majority (increase in incivility) is determined by 1. Economic well-being (most important) and 2. Education. Without both, tyranny of the minority extremists becomes more reality. Or domination be a few, self-interests; as in Oligarchy.
Today's system in America is geared toward Social Darwinism, religious extremism, crazy Left-Wing ideas of absolute equality (where none exists by biological design), etc.
And it is only getting worse. Progress is coming to a stand-still. The pendulum swings towards ignorance. Not only in America, but The World.
Rendition? There is a difference between rendition and extraordinary rendition.
Guantanomo? He has been unable to get the necessary funding from the House to close this site.
The rest? Mostly hopeless cynicism.
I disagree with this statement. lack of empathy is what got us into this third world problem that is coming to us like a freight train.
in this nation empathy is looked upon as sympathy. they are two different modes of being in the world. any nation that has 50 million of its citizens without health care is not a nation big on empathy or sympathy and surely not compassion, which is far beyond sympathy or empathy.
now I agree with many aspects of your comments about obama; he has proven to be a weak leader. the repubs smell weakness in him and they have been able to contain him to a great degree. his speech in tucson was another example of his weakness.
obama knows his voters well and he knows giving a good speech will keep his voters happy. after tucson they went nuts over him and he never mentioned gun control once or the violence in america. it it turned out to be a cheer leading contest about how great tucson and america is as a nation. ie tell them how great they are and they will love you. politicans play this card almost every day and big time when an election is coming up. except carter and look what happened to him.
Sometimes I really wonder if it is not this overweight, lethargic, intellectually under-stimulated population of ours are not just weak followers.