In my inquiries, I find that more and more capacities that I’ve assumed we all have, it turns out, we don’t.
The question that has been puzzling me is why certain ethnic groups that were persecuted at any one time don’t recognize a similarly persecuted other ethnic group as comrades in suffering. Why one victim can’t and won’t give you a hoot about another victim’s misery.
I mostly see this in movies nowadays, but I used to participate in groups and in big seminars, so I have been seeing this forever.
But this was the first time I asked the question: why is this?
Are these bad people? And I guess that is what I have been stuck with until yesterday.
Yesterday I asked the question: is it a capacity to see the same fate in another?
The answer was yes. Hm… but then what is the capacity? Is it the seeing or is it the appreciating of it?
Continue reading “Empathy… Life’s most important capacity to master”