In defense of empathy

Empathy is the fundamental force that creates humanity. The ability to not only understand, but feel other people, is what makes and sustains community. Without our ever expanding sphere of caring, we would not have been able to come together in cities and society. It is essential and without it, we perish. Humans lose their minds in isolation, we need humans to be human.

But throughout history and the natural world, there are parasites. People without emotional empathy, without a connection to humanity. They feed of society, but they cannot sustain it. They take & corrupt and, if unchecked, they will destroy civilizations. History can be seen as a constant struggle to contain sociopaths. They are few, but since they have no qualms about using deceit and violence to spread their evil, they always win in the end. And so civilizations fall, because you cannot govern, when all you care about is yourself.

We have reached a point in history, where we have given up on all of our defenses against sociopathy. We have embraced the lie of enlightened self-interest. We have put a price on everything and replaced human interaction with transactions.

We have done so, even when all evidence shows how detrimental this is. Our burning desires to have frictionless lives are burning down the world.

If we do not change track, we are doomed. If we do not return to empathy, we will perish. Just like all the other societies that litter the path of history.

Empathy create connection, which create community, which create civilization. When you understand someone and you care about them, you can work together. Cooperation is cumulative, it creates synergy. It is how we get shit done.

When we lose that knowledge and start to view our fellow humans as competitors, community unravels. When we lose interest in other humans, we lose trust and without that, you cannot sustain community.

It is not enough just to get back to empathy, we also need to actively reject sociopathic thinking. We need to create resilient societies that nurture empathy. We need to embed it with warnings & reminders of the danger of succumbing to sociopathic thinking.

So we do not forget:

I am only human because you are human.