Empathy makes casting moral judgments upon others more complicated and more difficult, because seeing something of our reality in them gives them a context — a “story” like our own, which frames their choices and actions with complexities that bleed over into our stories and those of others.
As the United States charges once more into war, little debate has centered on the actual utility of war. Instead, policymakers and pundits have focused their comments on combating the latest danger to our nation and its interests as posed by Islamic State militants.
Jim Manske’s insight:
Ever since childhood, the “utility” of war has puzzled me. It seemed to me that every war we studied in school eventually subsided into relative peace. I wondered, given that, why not go for the peace sooner rather than later…
Now, we have become conditioned to accept a constant war-footing…sending young men and women into harm’s way at great expense of individual and collective well-being…
In the world I want to live in, the military would be solely for implementing the protective use of force, and used only after all attempts at connection, understanding and mutuality have been exhausted.
Oy vey.
Do you fly off the handle for “no reason”? Have you been accused of being “hot-headed”? When the emotional intensity and severity of your behavior doesn’t match the situation at hand, you are overreacting…Jim Manske’s in…
Empathy was a trait thought to be reserved to higher mammals such as primates — until this experiment with rats.See it on Scoop.it, via Radical Compassion
Things that boost happiness are always worth revisiting around the holidays. Why now? Because these happiness habits can help us through the turbulence that swirls around the holidays.See it on Scoop.it, via Radical Compassion
