Do 'we' have a deficit of empathy?
As an adult, I find it really unfortunate that we have to have children, like Greta Thunberg, promoting something that should be obviously clear about dangers that we all face collectively.
Not to isolate Greta as one case on the matter, the same thing is going on with the U.S. if anyone recalls the school protests after the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The issue seems to be complex. Children are rejecting going to school and the curriculum over perceived dangers or injustices. In economics, this is strangely similar to the prisoner's dilemma, in terms of accepting a future where both are free to do what they want and are coerced by punishment not to fink on one another. Yet, the children are finking on the adults, who they (should) perceive as their more informed fiduciaries. How do you even begin to explain that, and perhaps more importantly in what terms?
Not to isolate Greta as one case on the matter, the same thing is going on with the U.S. if anyone recalls the school protests after the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The issue seems to be complex. Children are rejecting going to school and the curriculum over perceived dangers or injustices. In economics, this is strangely similar to the prisoner's dilemma, in terms of accepting a future where both are free to do what they want and are coerced by punishment not to fink on one another. Yet, the children are finking on the adults, who they (should) perceive as their more informed fiduciaries. How do you even begin to explain that, and perhaps more importantly in what terms?
Comments (14)
Like all things, empathy requires a good environment to birth. For instance a person must not be too exhausted, emotionally, physically, or mentally. Also direct contact with problems people face elicits greater degrees of feeling than second-hand information. Unfortunately, everybody's veritably in a state of war with everyday being a battle against the trials and tribulations of life, making them so exhausted as to be incapable of feelings let alone empathy.
I count Greta Thunberg as fortunate because she's someone who seems to be sufficiently removed from the struggles of life and therefore has the time and energy to feel for one of the problems we are'll going to have to deal with in the future and then act on those feelings. Of course like any normal person Greta may have her own problems and the commendable bit is her brushing them aside for what she probably thinks is more important - global disaster.
Cool. :cool:
Feelings... So, what do you make out of her feelings? Is it empathy or something else, like anger or outrage?
Her empathy for the suffering that global warming will bring on causes her outrage?!
Possibly.
Brings Hannah Arendt to mind.
The banality of evil walks hand in hand with this sophistry; the stories we tell that lead us to ignoring the facts. The air outside is thick with smoke from the largest fires ever seen, wilfully ignored because it does not fit sophisticated neo-liberal ideology.
The signs that it's not true:
ignored, not because the facts don't fit something sophisticated. Primal fear makes us vulnerable to tales of revelation.
"certain native flora in Australia have evolved to rely on bushfires as a means of reproduction, and fire events are an interwoven and an essential part of the ecology of the continent. For thousands of years, Indigenous Australians have used fire to foster grasslands for hunting and to clear tracks through dense vegetation."
--Wikipedia on Australian bushfires. The same thing is true of North America, except it was Native Americans doing controlled burns.
More isn’t always ‘better’.