Frantic tweets and videos have been seeping out of Haiti, pleading for help from the rest of the human race in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that leveled one of the poorest countries on the planet, spreading destruction and death.
The response by people all over the world has been immediate. Governments, NGOs, and individuals are mobilizing relief missions, and social websites are lighting up, as the collective human family extends a global empathic embrace to its neighbors in this small Caribbean nation. We saw a similar global response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans and the gulf coast of the United States and the giant tsunami that struck Asian and African coastlines earlier in the decade.
In recent years, whenever natural disasters have struck, in what is increasingly becoming a globally interconnected and interdependent world, human beings have come together as an extended family in an outpouring of compassion and concern. For these brief moments of time, we leave behind the many differences that divide us to act as a species. We become Homo empathicus.
Yet, when faced with similar tragedies that are a result of human-induced behavior, rather than precipitated by natural disasters, we are often unable to muster the same collective empathic response.
For example, recall when oil hit a record $147/barrel on world markets in July, 2008. Prices soared and basic necessities from food to heating oil became prohibitively expensive, imperiling the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings. Food riots broke out in more than 30 countries. Yet, the collective response of the human race was barely perceptible. Similarly, plagued with the real-time impacts of human induced climate change, which is already devastating ecosystems in countries around the world and creating millions of environmental refugees, the global response has been weak.
The question is: why?
It's true that unexpected natural disasters quickly arouse our attention. But, my suspicion is that this is not the only reason that we are unable to respond to human induced suffering with the same emotional and cognitive focus. The problem lies much deeper. When human induced behavior results in suffering to others on a large scale, we tend to shrug our shoulders as if to say, "that's human nature and therefore, there's not much we can do about it." That's because we have come to think of human nature as essentially selfish. Our beliefs have become a self-fulfilling prophecy--even if they turn out to be incorrect.
At the dawn of the modern market economy and the nation-state era, the philosophers of the Enlightenment argued that human beings are autonomous agents, and are detached, rational, and driven by material self-interest and utilitarian pursuits.
But, is that who we really are?
If so, then how do we explain the empathic response to natural disasters like the one that occurred in Haiti this past week. Perhaps our ideas about human nature merely reflect the operating assumptions of the modern market economy and provide those in power with an easy way to justify and explain the suffering inflicted on others, writing it off as a reflection of our species' aggressive, predatory and selfish behavior.
But, what if these age old assumptions about human nature are false? In the past 15 years, scientists from a wide range of fields, from evolutionary biology to neurocognitive research and child development, have been making breathtaking discoveries that are forcing us to rethink our long-held beliefs about human nature. Researchers are discovering mirror-neurons--the so-called empathy neurons--that allow human beings and other species to feel and experience another's situation as if it were one's own. We are, it appears, the most social animals and we seek intimate participation and companionship with our fellows.
It is only when our basic biological drive of empathic engagement is repressed or denied that secondary drives like aggression, acquisitiveness, and selfish behavior come to the surface.
It turns out that empathic consciousness has grown steadily over history. Our forager/hunter ancestors only extended primitive empathic distress to their immediate blood relatives and extended family. With the rise of the world's great religions, empathic consciousness extended to those of like-minded religious affiliation. Jews empathized with Jews, Christians with Christians, Muslims with Muslims, etc. In the modern market economy and nation-state era, the empathic embrace extended to people sharing a common national identity. American empathized with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese, etc.
Today, distributed information and communication technologies are bringing together the entire human race in an extended family. Is it so difficult, then, to imagine a leap to biosphere consciousness and the extension of empathy to our species as a whole and to the other creatures that cohabit this planet with us? Think for a moment, about the global empathic response when a young college pre-med student was gunned down in the protests that followed the flawed Iranian election. Within minutes, millions of college students around the world were viewing a cell-phone video of the killing and were extending their empathy to the young people in Iran. Or consider the release of the video showing a polar bear and her cub stranded on an ice floe in the arctic because of global warming. Millions of youngsters around the world instantly empathized with the plight of the mother and her cub.
Schoolchildren everywhere are learning that their everyday behavior--the food they eat, the electricity they use, the family car they drive in, and myriad other consumer habits intimately affect the wellbeing of every other human being and every other creature on Earth. This is the emergence of biosphere consciousness and the beginning of the next stage of our evolutionary journey as an empathic being.
Now we need to prepare the groundwork for an empathic civilization that is compatible with our core nature. This will require a rethinking of parenting styles, reforming our educational system, reinventing our business models, and transforming our governing institutions so that the way we live our lives is attuned to and, in accord with, our fundamentally empathic nature.
Lest we think this is an impossible task, consider again the global empathic outpouring for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. Then ask, why we can't harness that same global empathic embrace, not only to rescue victims of natural disasters, but also to raise generations of empathic global citizens who can live together in relative peace and harmony in a biosphere world.
Caroline Gluck: Dispatch from the Ground in Haiti
The needs in Haiti now are enormous, as most basic services just aren't functioning. At the best of times, daily life in Haiti for the 80% or so of the population, who have to live on less than two dollars a day, is a daily struggle.
Jeremy Rifkin: 'Empathic Civilization': Why Have We Become So Uncivil?
Washington insiders say they can't ever recall a period in American public life as full of anger and polarization as now.
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So many people get caught in the trap of "groupthink" and are unable to escape its grasp. Critical thinking is all about every possibility, and whatever we decide is the right idea is our individual choice.
Thanks for the commentary "dzagama."
Finally, we are opening our eyes to the control our governments have had over mankind through the eons which made us into what we are today and we are rebelling against that control in every way we can. We can see our way clear in many aspects and are CHANGING other aspects to make a way clear. We, the people, are finally beginning to take over the control of our own lives and take our lives back from those who have meant us no good.
"Walk a day in my shoes" is what the world needs every day.
Haiti, is far more important than most people realize. We're talking about the Second Independent Republic in the "Western Hemisphere"!!
When Simon Bolivar fled to Jamaica in 1815, he sought Haiti's help in his Rebelion against the Spanish Crown . In 1817 (thanks to Haitian support) Bolivar landed in Venezuela, and the rest is History!!!
We all OWE Haiti a Huge Debt, it's about time we PAY her back.......
Peace, Love & Respect.
ALLOW anyone to take our UNITY and COMPASSION for ALL in NEED,both in
OTHER COUNTRIES and HERE IN THE U.S.THIS TRAGEDY SHOULD TEACH
US THAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS and SUCCESS COMES FROM U.N.I.T.Y.,not
division and if we don't come together to do what's RIGHT,WE ALL WILL SUFFER!
We simply respond to the visual. We saw the folks sitting on top of roofs during Katirna and responded. We saw folks jumping out of the WTC and responded. We see the plight of Haitians and are responding. If we just read about it our level of response would be significantly reduced.
If people are oblivious to an issue, then they won't care about it, and vice-versa. It's actually simple when we really break it down to basics.
To anyone here on HP who sees it this way too, I recommend this excellent article by Tom Huston.
A Brief History of Evolutionary Spirituality
http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j35/evo-spirituality.asp
The human race is just getting started on the road to planetary consciousness. It is out great hope that many will begin to think for themselves and progress on this great journey after the hell of the totalitarian 20th Century and the mind bending terrible dysfunctional start to the 21st.
Has The Day of Our Spiritual Evolution Finally Come?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
Everyone keep posting here on HP!
Regardless of what we think of these people based upon where they live or who runs their country, they deserve the same care and compassion as anyone.
A catastrophe could happen right where you're sitting.
If an earthquake ruined your home and your life you'd want people to care and to help. If nothing else, we can all show compassion for these poor, unfortunate people.
Whenever we vilify and degrade any life, we're all diminished.
Our lives on this planet are too short, the work to be done too great, to let this spirit flourish.
Perhaps we can remember, if only for a time,
that those who live with us are our brothers and sisters,
that we share this same short moment of life,
that we seek nothing but the chance to live in purpose and in happiness,
winning what satisfaction and fulfillment that we can.
At the end of the day, and at the end of life we're all the same. In the end, everyone's equal.
The result of this is that poor people rely on having more kids, since more kids means more chances of having more work hands to help raise a family out of poverty. But this does not work at all times, since the more kids you have, the more mouths to feed. But since most poor people are uneducated, many of them stick to survival mode, and if having more kids is what they think works, then that's what they go for.
Not only that: rich nations are willing to tolerate corrupt politicians in poor countries. Who knows: maybe maintaining the status quo in these poor nations would be the best way to ensure that rich nations would have their way with these corrupt bureaucrats, so that the latter would give wealthy countries the blessing to monopolize the resources of poor countries.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Sorrows_Haiti.html
Simple enough. As a species we react really well to "crisis", but pretty poorly to "chronic" problems.
And evolutionarily speaking, this is easy to understand.
The big predator right behind you and about to eat you is a lot more capable of getting your attention (and more deserving of it) than the slowly rising flood that will kill your whole tribe.
Both equally deadly, but they work on different time scales.
So the result is that we are far more capable of dealing with a crisis, when we usually ignore chronic problems. A crisis will kill you (and end your particular genetic line). Chronic problems are more likely to take out a good fraction of your tribe, but that is just flat out easier to deal with.
Crisis is easier because priorities are clearer, action is required now, therefore decisions are easier.
The ability to give aid, help or assistance.
We all know that we are all vulnerable to disasters of both forms. Experience and observation have taught us that disasters of the natural variety tend to bring out the best in people and that whatever we do--be it direct effort, materials or simply money--actually helps. Ordinary people actually make a difference--at least for a while and at least to reduce the worst sort of human suffering.
Our experience with disasters of the man-made variety however is completely different. We can moan and bitch; we can contribute effort and money and guess what? Nothing changes except our blood pressure and bank accounts and we have come to feel powerless to make even the slightest, shortest change. As a consequence we tend to preserve (be selfish) during man-made disasters because we understand that they are the consequence of selfishness of the few who are in control.
huge earthquake
hits Haiti
causing mass destruction
and misery.
Now as ONE
Great Human Family
Super Homo sapiens
are rushing there
to Help the Helpless.
This global display
of UNIVERSAL LOVE LIGHT LIFE
POSITIVE ENERGY
May well lift
THE LOST NATION
on earth -
the poorest in the Western Hemisphere -
southern neighbor of Big Buddy USA
to shine as a splendid pearl
of the Caribbean anew.
The Children of Haiti
Need URGENT HELP
to rebuild Haiti.
Please give generously
in GOODNESS AND CHARITY
in true unconditional love!!!
I applaud your desire to help Haiti, but the new era, the new age is not going to be what people think it's going to be.
Super Homo Sapiens? Are you sure you don't mean Homo Noeticus?