Another New Thing
My world is getting turned upside down. In addition to learning I have to hate Canada and love Russia now I’m starting to hear that empathy might cause the fall of Western Civilization. That’s going to kill the sympathy card business and lord knows what florists will do. And talk about re-thinking history. It seems as though the success of the various civil rights and civil liberties movements for blacks, women, and gays was a direct result of empathy, of people walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, and thinking, “Wow, that’s uncomfortable and why do they have to do that?”
Of course, in all likelihood this idea isn’t being sold to me or my cohorts, but to a younger audience. And it’s likely the guidebook is a podcast somewhere because I think that’s how ideas spread these days. Some guy starts talking, figures out what resonates, and keeps amplifying the message. And none of them have any idea what the world was like before they were born or really much interest in finding out. I guess, in this empathyless world, the real men were the ones standing behind the lunch counter sit-in protesters of the 60s cursing and spitting at them.
Getting my head around this will take some doing. Although, I’m not sure I want to spend much time trying to implement this idea. First of all, I’m too old and set in my ways. And secondly, one of the people I’ve heard selling this idea, is a white man from a country that practiced apartheid until 1990. So, I wonder if maybe his family might have a real sense of grievance about how empathy impacted their lives and a real bone to pick with the Western Civilization that ganged up against them to force their hand.