Sympathy? Rapport?

I feel your pain…

 

This section is about empathy. The concept of empathy is difficult to define. It certainly has learned aspects, and also givens. I think we are normally born with a varying degree of empathy, and we can learn to add to it, or unlearn it to give its opposite, cruelty. Certainly the first video below substantiates that.

 

This second video is called “Nightmare in Manchuria”. It shows how far human beings can degrade one another if we lack empathy. Warning, this video is graphic in nature:

 

David Dow talking on TED uses his experience as a lawyer defending people sentenced to death in Texas, USA, to talk about how society can do more to prevent people ever reaching that stage. It also turns out this is more economical than following through the proceedings through to their ultimate destructive end. Essentially, he’s saying his society should have more empathy “built in”, and follow examples of other States or Countries that have better social services in place: