What the World Needs is a Little Empathy & Compassion

Empathy is the capacity to recognize, or feel, the emotions that another person or being is experiencing. Compassion is an emotion that we feel in response to the pain and suffering of another being.  A little bit of empathy is needed in order to experience compassion. 

In an article titled "Empathy & Compassion," Betty W. Phillips, Ph.D., Psychology writes "In the last few years you may have noticed the increase in warfare, divisiveness, unbridled profit seeking and budget cutting on the backs of the poor, sick or elderly, all examples of lack of empathy and compassion. Quality of life and happiness indices are falling rapidly in the USA, more rapidly than in other countries. Yes, they are related."  

In a well researched article titled "The Compassionate Instinct," Dacher Keltner discusses the collective beliefs that humans are selfish, greed is good, altruism is an illusion, cooperation is for suckers, competition is natural, war is inevitable and the bad in human nature is stronger than the good. Keltner points out that such beliefs have been perpetuated from the time of Plato, who "compared the human soul to a chariot: the intellect is the driver and the emotions are the horses. Life is a continual struggle to keep the emotions under control.," to the present day. 

Keltner writes, "Even compassion, the concern we feel for another being’s welfare, has been treated with downright derision. Kant saw it as a weak and misguided sentiment: “Such benevolence is called soft-heartedness and should not occur at all among human beings,” he said of compassion. Many question whether true compassion exists at all—or whether it is inherently motivated by self-interest."

Keltner then goes on to discuss recent findings and studies that indicate that these old and outdated beliefs have no basis in reality.  "These studies support a view of the emotions as rational, functional, and adaptive—a view which has its origins in Darwin’s Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. Compassion and benevolence, this research suggests, are an evolved part of human nature, rooted in our brain and biology, and ready to be cultivated for the greater good."

Keltner then provides the reader with a good amount of information supporting the idea that "compassion is deeply rooted in our brains, our bodies, and in the most basic ways we communicate."  

If this is the case, then why do so many people people seem to lack empathy and compassion ?  Why the wars, the greed and the divisiveness?  Although we are born as empathetic and compassionate beings, our beliefs are conditioned by our environment, culture, society and parents.  If we are to make the world a better place, we have to collectively work on changing our collective beliefs and value systems.  We have to learn to cultivate and develop the empathy and compassion that resides within us.  We have to start with ourselves and then those around us.