Evil as the Absence of Empathy

[CrisisPapers]

| Ernest Partridge |

1946, Dr. Gustav M. Gilbert, a psychologist fluent in German, was assigned by the U.S. Army to study the minds and motivations of the Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg tribunals. The following year, his Nuremberg Diary was published, containing transcripts of his conversations with the prisoners. (Excerpts here).

In words consistent with what I have read of, and about, Gustav Gilbert, he is portrayed in the 2000 TV film "Nuremberg," as telling the Head Prosecutor Robert Jackson (Alex Baldwin), "I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants: a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

"Absence of empathy" is likewise, I submit, "the one characteristic that connects" most of the immoral and misbegotten tenets of Bushism: that dogmatic mix of market absolutism, libertarianism, corporatism and simple greed that falsely describes itself as "conservatism," and which I choose to call "regressivism." "Absence of empathy" is the essence of evil which, if unchecked and unreversed, is certain to bring about the demise of the American republic as we know it, just as it led to the fall of the Third Reich.

In contrast, empathy, the capacity to recognize and cherish in other persons, the experience, emotions and aspirations that one is aware of in oneself, is the moral cornerstone of progressive politics. It is a principle recognized and taught in all the great world religions, reiterated by numerous moral philosophers, and validated by the scientific study of human personality.

Empathy is the foundation of the moral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. In that most-quoted New Testament verse, the golden rule, Jesus said: "as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Luke 6:31, also Matthew 7:2). Also, "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matthew 22:39, also Leviticus 19;18). Both commandments imply recognition in others of the human dignity and worth that one recognizes in oneself. In a word, empathy.

The golden rule is echoed in the moral teachings of Islam: "None of you (truly) believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." And as Mohamed taught in his last sermon, "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you." (Mohamed, last sermon). And Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus, taught "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary."

And yet, how much empathy is to be found among self-proclaimed "Christian" end-times preachers, such as James Hagee and Tim LeHaye, who eagerly anticipate "the rapture" and the eternal torment and damnation that awaits virtually all of humanity, as punishment for the sin of failing to agree with the preachers' theology? How much empathy is evident in the late Jerry Falwell's on-air remark to Wolf Blitzer, about Islamic militants, "If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord," and Ann Coulter's infamous outburst, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." Because they explicitly renounce Jesus' injunction to "love thy enemies" these hate-mongers are, in a literal and moral sense, "anti-Christs."

Regressivism and the Absence of Empathy

Empathy is conspicuously absent in the off-hand remarks of George Bush, his family, and his political allies. For example,

• Bush himself, to an ordinary citizen after a campaign event: "Who cares what you think?" And to Bob Woodward: "History, we don't know. We'll all be dead."


• The President's mother, Barbara Bush, on Good Morning America: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths. Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" (March 18, 2003).


• Dick Cheney, in an exchange with ABC reporter, Martha Raddatz:



Raddatz: Two-third of Americans say (the Iraq War) is not worth fighting.

Cheney: So?

Raddatz: So? You don't care what the American people think?

Cheney: No....



• John McCain: "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." And in response to the news that cigarettes are a major US export to Iran, McCain remarked that it might be "a way of killing 'em."


• Former Senator Phil Gramm, economic advisor to John McCain, in an interview with the Washington Times, remarked that the American economy is in "a mental recession.: "We've sort of become a nation of whiners," he added.

The foundational doctrines of regressivism are equally devoid of empathy. For example, Ayn Rand: "Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.. the process of setting man free from men." (The Fountainhead) And "Man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself." (The Virtue of Selfishness.)

Furthermore, "economic Man" (Homo economicus), a central concept of neo-classical economic theory favored by regressives, is an uncompromising egoist, whose sole motivation is to "maximize personal utility" or "preference satisfaction." A "perfect market" of fully informed, non-colluding, uncoerced "economic men," free of government interference, the theory tells us, will invariably produce better results for all than any governmental system yet devised. Never mind that "economic man" and "the perfect market" are fictions, that never have been and never can be realized in any human society. (For a defense of this claim, see my "Beautiful Theory vs. Baffling Reality").

The unfounded yet undiminished right-wing faith in the "wisdom" of the free-market and in the superiority of the pursuit of individual "utility maximization" as the engine of social progress, was starkly summed up by "Gordon Gekko" (Michael Douglas) in the 1987 movie, "Wall Street:" "Greed ... is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind."

In fact, history teaches us that greed is not good, and greed does not work. "Homo economicus" is, in fact, a moral monster, for he is a being devoid of empathy and even of conscience. A mere bundle of "consumer preferences" can not add up to personhood, much less moral agency. When greed (call it "the profit motive") reigns supreme, "others," be they employees or fellow citizens, are reduced to impersonal objects. If these "others" are employees, they are regarded as units of "human capital" to be replaced by less costly "units" (e.g. "outsourced") whenever possible. And if they are fellow citizens, they are prospective customers, to be relieved through "creative marketing" of their disposable wealth. Human, social, environmental "external costs" be damned. Witness the tobacco industry.

A "society" of private, egoistic, "utility maximizers," devoid of empathy and unregulated by law and popular government, without shared values, loyalties and aspirations, is no society at all. It is a Hobbesian state of nature – a "war of all against all," wherein life becomes "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." (Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan).

As we are now discovering, to our great regret and sorrow.

Progressivism and Empathy

In stark contrast, empathy – awareness of the needs, sufferings, aspirations, rights, and dignity of others – is the unifying theme of the progressive agenda, and of the history of political/economic liberalism (in the traditional sense of the word). The elite and wealthy delegates to the Continental Congress, when they demanded recognition of their rights, did not fail at that time to acknowledge the rights of all persons:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

True, at the outset the full "rights" of citizenship were restricted to white, male, landowners. But through time and constant struggle, those rights were extended to include all adult citizens, regardless of gender, race or creed. These struggles, which continue today, were led by "liberals," and resisted by self-described "conservatives."

Joe Conason eloquently describes these struggles and achievements:

If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor; if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a forty-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights -- you can thank liberals. If your food is not poisoned and your water is drinkable -- you can thank liberals. If your parents are eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without bankrupting your family - you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn't black with pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still green -- you can thank liberals. If people of all races can share the same pubic facilities; if everyone has the right to vote; if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally begun to transcend a segregated society -- you can thank liberals. Progressive innovations like those and so many others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those advances. The country we know and love today was built by those victories for liberalism -- with the support of the American people. (Big Lies, p. 3)

That public support and the consequent liberal reforms issued from empathy: from the awareness throughout the general public that oppressed minorities and economically and educationally disadvantaged individuals, possess the same sentiments, needs, aspirations and rights that more fortunate citizens recognized in themselves.

Regressivism as Psychopathology

Empathy is never totally absent in any functioning human being. A recognition that other persons with whom one deals have functioning minds with ideas, emotions, and aspirations is implicit in game playing, in negotiations, and even ordinary conversation. Self awareness, even that of a thoroughly egoistic, narcissistic and sociopathic self, can only arise out of childhood interaction with others. The self is a social construct.Thus even such sociopaths as George Bush and Dick Cheney will acknowledge that the bombs dropped on Iraq cause "collateral damage" and thus profound suffering to innocent civilians. They likewise are aware of the suffering in New Orleans caused by the mismanagement of the Katrina disaster. They are, after all, at least minimally sane. Such an awareness of others that is also devoid of feeling we might call "abstract empathy." The misery to innocent others that they cause simply does not matter to the Busheviks. They do not care, unless these moral atrocities exact political costs to themselves.

This "abstract empathy" is not the sort of "empathy" that Dr. Gustav Gilbert found absent among the Nuremberg defendants. The empathy that he had in mind combines awareness with feelings of concern and with respect for the rights and integrity of the other.

In contrast, the regressivism of the Bush/Cheney administration would have us ignore the economic, social and environmental consequences of unregulated commerce, and also have us dismantle Social Security, impoverish public education, tolerate inadequate health care for millions of our fellow citizens, abolish fundamental constitutional rights, and engage in aggressive wars against unthreatening countries, all of this with minimal regard for the human misery caused by these policies. To do all this, requires a deliberate stifling of feelings of empathy, and what David Hume called the "natural moral sentiment" of benevolence: a genuine concern for the well-being of others.

Regressives who support such policies are, at worst, simply amoral: without moral restraint, "rotten to the core." At best, they are profoundly mistaken: possibly fundamentally decent individuals, trustworthy, law-abiding, charming friends, devoted spouses and parents, but bewitched by false dogmas. The former are, by and large, beyond redemption and are best isolated from political influence and from positions of public responsibility. The latter might be amenable to evidence and rational persuasion.

How can such an ideology captivate and take political control of a nation once renowned and admired for its generosity and compassion and for its devotion to democracy and human rights?

In part, the rise and dominance of regressivism is the result of a deliberate and opulently funded public relations campaign, supported for the past forty years by wealthy individuals and corporations. This campaign included the establishment of ideological "think tanks" such as The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The Competitive Enterprise Institute, the abolition of The Fairness Doctrine and the consolidation of most of the mass media into six "conservative" mega-conglomerates, enormous expansion of corporate lobbying of Congress, and a vastly increased corporate involvement in campaign financing, of both major parties. With conservative Republicans in control of the White House for all but eight of the past twenty-eight years, the federal courts have become dominated by right-wing judges.

With these formidable propaganda resources, the resurgent Right has exploited "natural sentiments" equally fundamental to human nature as empathy; namely, ethnocentrism (identification with and loyalty to "our group") and its negative complement, xenophobia (fear, distrust, and hatred of "outsiders"). The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 intensified these prejudices, objectifying and depersonalizing the new enemy (so-called "Islamo-Fascists") while, at the same time, neutralizing empathetic sentiments toward the residents of these "alien" nations.

With the captive media exploiting and intensifying public fear of "terrorism," the Bush regime formulated, and the intimidated Congress readily assented to, assaults upon our traditional civil liberties such as the PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act, and now the revised FISA Act.

Finally, regressivism feeds upon greed: the relentless corporate drive for still more profits and political control, and the perpetual cultivation of consumer demand by the multi-billion dollar advertising and public relations industries.

But greed is pitiless and blind to the side effects ("externalities") of the unconstrained appetite for the consumption of consumer goods and for profit: effects such as poverty, pollution, disease, and the "collateral damage" of war upon innocent civilians.

A political economy based upon unregulated greed has been tried numerous times in the past, and has failed in each and every occasion: the French and Russian Revolutions, the era of the robber barons in the late Nineteenth Century, the Great Depression of the Thirties. They failed because when greed rules, the nation's wealth inevitably flows from those who produce the wealth to those who own and control the wealth until, eventually, the toleration of the increasingly miserable masses for this economic injustice collapses, and the oligarchic regime is overthrown.

Once again, regressivism is on the brink of collapse.

• Time Magazine and the Rockefeller Foundation reported last week that 85% of US population is unhappy with the US economy.


• In April, 80% of Americans believed that the "country is moving in the wrong direction."


• "During the first six months of 2008, 343,159 Americans lost their homes, up 136% from 145,696 recorded during the same period in 2007." (CNNMoney.com).


• An alarming and under-reported increase in unemployment and inflation is underway. (US government cost of living statistics do not include food and fuel prices).


• The latest Gallup Poll reports that Democratic party affiliation leads Republican by ten points (47% to 37%).


• George Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time low at 28% (disapproval from 61%-69%)

This public sentiment should suffice to overthrow any regime that maintains power "with the consent of the governed" and subject to recall by election. Under normal circumstances, these statistics would indicate a landslide repudiation of the regime in the coming national election.

But these are not normal circumstances, for this regime is supported by a formidable array of resources: virtually unlimited financial support, a captive media including a cadre of right-wing pundits, a proven ability to rig elections along with a refusal of the media to investigate and report election fraud, oppressive laws, a ruthless GOP campaign organization unconstrained by facts, fair-play, or even on occasion, by the law. All these resource might once again overwhelm the "consent of the governed," and prolong the regressive regime for another four or even eight years. But eventually, it must fall. The longer it holds on, the greater the misery and repression that will ensue, and the more violent the eventual overthrow.

Best to end it now.

But it will take an extraordinary effort by an overwhelming number of ordinary citizens to bring it off. There are no guarantees.

-- EP

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Breathtaking post. Thanks. Will be sharing it with all I know.

[polichick]

2. Thank you! k&r

[flashl]

3. K&R nt

[indepat]

4. America has been moving inexorably along one track followed during the Third Reich:

that of one person wholly lacking empathy being the sole decider, putting all of one's eggs in the basket of a person totally devoid of empathy, the unitary executive theorem bunk which puts total power in the hands of one person wholly devoid of empathy: putting the fate of a nation in the hands of one person devoid of empathy is sheer nonsense and the sheerest of follies which invariably leads to total disaster, a path this nation has been on for almost seven years all the while the citizenry largely have their figurative fingers stuck up their own asses giving their decider, known to be devoid of empathy, a free hand to do everything he wants. :D

[windoe]

5. Enthusiastic kick

"The longer it holds on, the greater the misery and repression that will ensue, and the more violent the eventual overthrow."

The longer we wait for justice, the more violent this regime becomes, more police brutality, more torture, more war casualties, more disappearances and--we will be driven to more desperate and risky confrontations with crowd controlling forces.....and I think this is what has to happen here, something is going to drive people over the edge and I hope people stay safe--

Obama has a soothing effect here and abroad, but if the fascism and war and economic crash continues, it will not matter.

[ClayZ]

6. K and R

[Triana]

7. This all ties in with NPD and psychopathy as applies to personal relationships as well...

...ie: domestic violence, and abuse - physical/verbal/emotional/spiritual/sexual/financial and abusive family, friends, spouses. The #1 indicator of a pathological problem in the abuser's personality is lack of empathy/conscience - empathy in the person with NPD (which is a milder form of psychopathy), and lack of conscience in the psychopath.

And George W. Bush does show signs of sociopathic/psychopathic behavior - total lack of empathy/conscience.

It's more common than anyone wants to acknowledge and wreaks havoc on society and normal people's lives. No one wants to believe that a human being can completely lack empathy or a conscience - but a lot of them do - and most of them are NOT serial murders or in prison. Many of them are CxOs of corporations, and heads of state - and many of them are an abusive spouse, partner, or family member.

[defendandprotect]

8. True . .. but we are living within a system which rewards the collector of dollar bills --

i.e., capitalism --- and not someone who is rewarded in more humane ways ---

societal esteem for saving a life thru knowledge of medicine, for instance.


Bush/Cheney are well hooked into collecting dollar bills and ignoring emotions --

and continue to be surrounded by the corporate-dollar givers.


Further, patriarchy's underpinning is organized patriarchal religions which introduced

the one all-male god of vengenance and violence. This is what patriarchy is based on.


As long as we have patriarchy we will have violence.


Did anyone ever say that religion is good for mental health?

[defendandprotect]

10. dupe

[CoffeeCat]

13. I'm glad someone brought up the abuse...

...factor.

There are so many Republicans who have been caught sexually abusing children. The list
of convictions is a mile long.

So many Republicans are sociopaths, and the fact that sexual abuse of children flows rampant
in these circles, demonstrates (in my opinion) that the sociopaths/psychopaths/narcissists
currently have a stranglehold on the party. Abusing children, other nations, the poor in
our own country, and the vulnerable--is enjoyable to these people.

Abuse as a form of governance in our country--has metastasized. Before--being abusive was hidden
and perpetrators were ashamed. Now, it seems--BushCo has made it ok to come out of the shadows and
join the Republican party--where very dysfunctional people no longer have to hide their proclivities.
It feels as if many of them have galvanized and are openly using evil, abuse and their dysfunctional
traits to gain power, retain power and amass wealth.

That's why I think we live in dangerous times. The Republicans have made psychopathology and evil acceptable.
They encourage it and they're rewarded (promoted, given top jobs) for it. Their stance on torture, although they
don't admit it--is a wink and a nod to the abusers out there--that you have a home in the Republican party. You
no longer have to feel ashamed because you enjoy powering up on people, harming the vulnerable
and abusing power.

It's one thing to have isolated abusers--ashamed of themselves and hiding their abusive
nature. It's quite another, when a country's leadership rewards psychopathology and enables these types
to gain power and celebrate their sickness.

Very dangerous times in which we live.

[BridgeTheGap]

9. Psychopathic? Probably so...defs. etc.

Are some corporate CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, politicians and scientists psychopaths? The answer could be “yes” if you use a definition which labels individuals who are often intelligent and highly charismatic, but display a chronic inability to feel guilt, remorse or anxiety about any of their actions. Tack on the use of violence and intimidation to control others and satisfy selfish needs and the label expands.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/07/03/improving-the-definition-of-%E2%80%98psychopath%E2%80%99/

[jaybeat]

11. In Blade Runner it's the test for whether someone is human

Organic androids ("replicants") are human in every biological way. ("More human than human" is the slogan for the company that makes them.) The only way to test to see if an individual is a human or a replicant is a test that measures the subjects empathetic response (or lack thereof) to a series of questions "designed to produce an emotional response."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voight-Kampff_machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_204tXHZY

[Opressed]

12. Losing Our Freedom

When I was young I believed that the greatest thing about the USA was the freedom to believe what you want and to do what you want in the pursuit of your own personal vision of happiness, so long as you did not harm others. This, of course, was tempered with the idea that you had to earn a living and make money to buy the things required to help you achieve your happiness.

But I have come to learn how not free the USA is and it seems to be rapidly becoming less free. It is not even that I am a radically wild person seeking to live a wild and crazy life. But the moral panics and mass levels of fear that seem to be prevalent through American society, sometimes at what appears to be hysterical levels, is being used to push us towards an increasingly less tolerant, less empathetic and less free society.

I’ve been watching it slowly happen since the backlash against the sexual revolution began in earnest in the early 1980s. Reganomics began a clear trend towards the rich becoming richer and the middle class sliding down towards the poor class. The power and money have been increasingly concentrating under the control of a smaller and smaller segment of the population, creating increasingly powerful elite.

This trend has continued to happen under Democratic as well as Republican leadership, though the Republicans definitely seem to push the process forward much faster. Under President Bush, since 9/11, this process has leaped forward with dangerous speed. The changes made are not easy to change and Obama becoming President will not undo the damage.

We are in seriously dangerous times, but the greatest danger to the USA is ourselves, by allowing ourselves to be led towards a fascist dictatorship. The loss of democracy and slip into dictatorship can come surprisingly fast. Look at the historical examples.

The only people who can stop this from happening is the same people who are allowing it to happen, the American Public. I don't see much chance of this at the moment, which makes me want to find a far away place to hide, because where Nazi Germany lost, if the USA goes down the same path, it will likely win.

[truedelphi]

15. I am sorry for the cynicism of your last paragraph

And even sorrier that I share that cynicism with you.

[Larry Ogg]

33. If your looking for the guilty, you need only too look in the mirror.

And I totally agree about Obama; if the http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861672898/%C3%A9minence_grise.html"> éminence grise permit, at best he will slow the regressive decent into hell, sort of a token calming of the nerves of the condemned middle class. But I predict that that calming will be shattered soon after he takes the oath of office and the gullible sheeple realize that they have elected not a President, but rather a Union steward beholden too the http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3141216"> Pathocracy.

And welcome too DU Opressed :toast:

[puebloknot]

14. "...the more violent the eventual overthrow."

I lived in Germany, ten years after the end of the war, as an American military "brat." Ten years on, there were still bombed-out buildings near Mainz(one being a cathedral -- an image I felt was appropriate, even as a teenager, as a sign of the failure of good to stand up to evil). I very often wonder if it is going to take a total breakdown of our society to finally rid ourselves of this pestilence that has invaded our land. We are not immune to such destruction.

The overthrow will be much more difficult now than on Boston Common or in the crossing of the Rhine. Then, weapons were unsophisticated -- rifles and cannons and tanks -- until we opened Pandora's Box the end of WWII with the atomic bomb. Now we are faced with a draconian array of weapons for crowd control against which we have no defense. Remembering scenes of suffering after the war in Germany, seeing photos of the devastation of Hiroshama and Nagasaki after the bombing, I am forced to wonder if it will finally come to something that devastating before we rise from the ashes again as a country with at least an intent for good.

Best to have ended it when the Supreme Court installed GW in 2000. Best to have an educated and aware populace to rise to the occasion, then and now. Unfortunately, I think it will take something as elemental as starvation at the hands of our slavemasters to awaken an already weakened population. For now, those who point out the parallels between Nazi Germany and 21st Century America are just senile doomsayers -- in the minds of many, and not just "the young."

Thanks for a great article.

[rucognizant]

31. Me too puebloknot

I was 17, and spent the summer of '55 in the Ruhr valley with my penpal, under the auspices of the American Friends Society's, sister school program. It was a life changing event! I heard fron the young Germans how they felt having been dragged through a war NOT of their choosing, several of the boys dragged against their will into the Hitler Junge, luckily and gratefully to be released from that service by US , USA! winning the war. My hostess showed me the bomb shelter under the rose bushes in her Aunt's garden, which kept them safe, and told about the AMerican GI's giving out chocolate bars )supreme luxury) Her family was rich; but Nazis??????? they manufactured fine upscale furniture......did that allow them to dance around the issue?Her family came the followin g year and stayed with us on a business trip to study America's theories of "planned deterioration". 1956!
I observed the mature Germans ( the good germans) noticed how they were 'gemeutlichheit" ( jolly) on a superficial basis, could
dine at a table and drink beer & sing with perfect strangers.......just don't scratch the surface and try any deep conversation. The kids were willing to explore in depth feelings etc. We spent a week at a boardinghouse in The Hague, and I remember sitting in the square in front of the Peace Palace, home of the newly formed UN, youth from all nations, white Russians,
I was from a small South Jersey town with a rather large 3rd 4th generation German population and very few Jewish families, ( and during the war, German prisoners were put to work harvesting the vegetables, and there were rather friendly relationships with the townies they worked with. They weren't by any stretch Nazi sympathizers, they were "liberals".
I didn't hear much about the atrocities until I went to Art School in Philly and had many Jewish classmates........

Because of that experience, I have since held the view that our public school education should focus much more on that kind of growth learning. Instead we've run fast inthe opposite direction. ( It serving our masters better)

[puebloknot]

42. Thanks for engaging!

Yes, Germany was ripped apart by war, and the denial of their part in starting it. After it was over, an older generation lived with that denial and shame while their children went on to build a new a more sane nation.

We will have that, too. The world will say, as they said to the Germans, "Why did you let it happen?" And we will all wonder to ourselves, "How could we not? What could we really have done to stop fascism in America. Most of our energy went to processing the shock of "fascism" and "America" in one sentence.

We have to hope for a new generation that will have the vision and strength to clean up and rebuild -- after the carnage ends, whenever that is.

Very nice to hear from you.

[truedelphi]

16. I oppose war with every fiber of my being because to have war

You have to force empathy to go underground.

You cannot have war and be an empathetic society.

[nashville_brook]

17. wooooooooW. what a great post/essay. thank you!

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Dammit, Partridge, I been meaning to write that.

You beat me to it.

Beautiful job. Thanks.

[bertman]

19. Recommended. An excellent post.

However, I too, must take issue with the premise that it will only change when the lives of the serfs become so miserable that they revolt. That ain't gonna happen.

This whole police state system that has been developing in the U.S. since after WWII is a finely tuned machine. Witness the accounts of peace activists being trailed like common criminals by agents of Fatherland Security. Witness the absolution of posse comitatus. Witness the rise of Blackwater. Witness the warrantless searches and seizures that happen every day in our cities when citizens are stopped and forced to open their vehicles and belongings to searches to "prevent a terrorist attack".

Ladies and gentlemen, the Reich is upon us.

My vision of the future is not so optimistic as others'. Plus, it's the midnight hour.

[azul]

20. The science of empathy or mirror neurons is also emerging.

Some forms of autism and heartlessness seen to lack these connections crucial to human development.
--------------

MIRROR NEURONS AND THE BRAIN IN THE VAT <1.10.06>
by V.S. Ramachandran

Iaccomo Rizzolati and Vittorio Gallasse discovered mirror neurons. They found that neurons in the ventral premotor area of macaque monkeys will fire anytime a monkey performs a complex action such as reaching for a peanut, pulling a lever, pushing a door, etc. (different neurons fire for different actions). Most of these neurons control motor skill (originally discovered by Vernon Mountcastle in the 60's), but a subset of them, the Italians found, will fire even when the monkey watches another monkey perform the same action. In essence, the neuron is part of a network that allows you to see the world "from the other persons point of view," hence the name “mirror neuron."

Researchers at UCLA <1> found that cells in the human anterior cingulate, which normally fire when you poke the patient with a needle ("pain neurons"), will also fire when the patient watches another patient being poked. The mirror neurons, it would seem, dissolve the barrier between self and others. I call them "empathy neurons" or "Dalai Llama neurons". (I wonder how the mirror neurons of a masochist or sadist will respond to another person being poked.) Dissolving the "self vs. other" barrier is the basis of many ethical systems, especially eastern philosophical and mystical traditions. This research implies that mirror neurons can be used to provide rational rather than religious grounds for ethics (although we must be careful not to commit the is/ought fallacy).

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandran06/ramachandran06_index.html

[DeepModem Mom]

21. K&R!

[eridani]

22. This brings up the question of what counts as "normal" in human personality types

Are we engaging in a political contest with people whose brains don't work like ours? Failing to understand one way or another will put us in a strategically weak situation.

IMO empathy is one of a number of human personality traits which can be placed on continua. Bell curves are probably oversimplifications, but might serve as a starting point for discussion, with "neurotypical" being at the middle of the curve. Note however that people a couple of standard deviations in either direction can be perfectly functional socially. I'd also like to avoid any nature/nurture controversies--the empirical observations are the same either way, and where people fall on the continua certainly owes as much to life experience as to inborn traits. Let's consider three distributions of traits--cheerfulness/depression, social intelligence, and empathy.

Cheerfulness/depression continuum

Grey pit dwellers-->wet blankets/sourballs-->neurotypical wearers of slightly rose-tinted glasses-->terminally perky

A few years back, one of my coworkers had an article hung in his cubicle describing the job performance of cheerful people versus sourballs, which concluded that the sourballs had more realistic perceptions of complex problems and were more likely to come up with deeper, more thorough and more creative analyses of problems. The terminally perky were far more superficial. Depressed people, when evaluating their own job performances, tended to agree with others' evaluations of them--they did not underrate themselves; their performance self-evaluations were simply accurate. More optimistic people had higher opinions of themselves than their coworkers did.

It's well known that optimism and cheerfulness enhance the immune system and lead to better recovery from a whole spectrum of diseases, so individuals will be selected for that trait. The human norm is probably therefore having a somewhat rosy tint to perceptions of reality. However, it may well be that the tribe needs at least a few people to perceive more accurately what is really going on, and to more creatively deal with new situations, so there would be group selection for this. The price paid is that a few on the far end of the spectrum will periodically get trapped in the grey pit, the dark night of the soul. (To the extent that genetics is involved, it probably works like the distribution of sickle cell hemoglobin genes in malaria-prone regions. The price for having half the population malaria-resistant is having 25% of the population with sickle cell anemia.)

Social intelligence continuum

Expert dolphin-like divers in the social swim-->neurotypicals-->nerds/geeks-->Asperger's syndrome-->high-functioning autistics--> completely dysfunctional head-banging autistics

Human social connectedness depends on the ability of most people to read social signals. However, it is also clearly beneficial to human society to have some of its members partly stripped of that ability so that they can perceive reality logically without dealing with misleading conceptions deriving from pure social utility. That's where we get scientists and engineers from. (Charismatic politicians are at the other end of the spectrum.) The price we pay is that a few people will be doomed to spending their lives banging their heads on hard surfaces.

(Note: I'm not discounting possible environmental causes of autism here, just suggesting that if there are environmental causes, we are possibly looking at an overlay of environment-related cases sitting on top of a full spectrum of personality types within a normal range. Similarly, type I and type II diabetes are very different conditions despite the fact that they have problems with blood sugar control in common.)

I think that the male/female differences in continuum location come about because it can be absolutely lethal for women to be unable to read social signals emanating from those who have been known to kill or maim them for such misreadings. Whether by biology or sex-role socialization or both, it is the case that girl geeks are usually somewhat less geeky than boy geeks--this enables them to mediate between boy geeks and society at large, even though they are generally unable to keep up with the junior high female "in" crowd.

Empathy continuum

Sociopaths-->near sociopaths-->soldiers/emergency workers-->the neurotypically empathic-->altruists-->hearts tending to bleed uncontrollably all over almost everything

Empathy is the human norm--we really do feel other peoples' pain. It creates social bonds because acting to relieve others' pain relieves our own psychological distress. However, it is also necessary to be able to suppress empathy for self-defense and for dealing with emergencies. Your chances of survival are greatly enhanced if your emergency room team does not feel your pain, but instead treats you like a malfunctioning meat machine until your vital signs are stabilized. If we need to suppress empathy occasionally to survive, it immediately follows that a few people will inevitably turn out to be entirely too good at it--hence sociopathology. To sociopaths, others are never anything but objects to be used for their own benefit. On the other end of the spectrum are people almost incapacitated for self defense because of their intense empathy--that's where religious traditions like Jainism come from.

Looking at phenomena like the high suicide rate among police officers and the incidence of PSTD in people exposed to battle conditions, we seem (thankfully) to not have enough people trending toward sociopathology to completely fill our needs for protection/emergency response career positions. PSTD exists because the majority of our cops and soldiers are neurotypically empathic.

So, what does all this have to do with conservatives?

Of the three continua I have described, I think that they are different from us on the empathy continuum. I'd label them as near-sociopathic, not Ted Bundy-style complete sociopaths, but having the same relationship to Ted Bundy as people with Asperger's syndrome have to head-banging autistics. The parts of their brains that process the information "How would I like it if someone did that to me?" function either poorly or only intermittently. And it's a common enough condition that I sure wish there was a common readily recognizable term analogous to Asperger's syndrome that we could use to describe them.

It explains at least a few things, like for instance how rule-bound and authoritarian they are. This indicates deviation from neurotypical empathic ability. Consider how Asperger's syndrome people deal with their inability to read social cues--they compensate by using rulebooks that they generate based on careful observation of neurotypical behavior. (#47. When a neurotypical says "How are you?" this is not actually a request for detailed information.)

Theologians, confronting the observation that people who did not share their particular religious beliefs nonetheless mostly behaved perfectly reasonably toward each other, came up with the concept of natural law. That is, inborn empathy is the foundation of human ethics and the source of the Golden Rule proverbs found in every known human culture. Lao Tzu famously observed "When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears." In other words, discard natural human empathy and immediately you need a lot rules and regulations to make people behave ethically.

So, perhaps the conservative insistence on punitive law enforcement, unthinking obedience to authority and displaying the Ten Commandments everywhere reflects real awareness of themselves as deficient people who can't function socially without a detailed rule book. Lots of sociopaths and near-sociopaths, after all, can pass for normal in society if they decide that following the rules is more convenient and pleasant for them than not following the rules. Naturally a near-sociopath will perceive neurotypically empathic types as "bleeding hearts," because that's how someone in the middle of the continuum looks to them from their position at the other end of it.

Situational sociopathology

Consider the well-known experiments of Stanley Milgram, which demonstrate clearly that just about anybody is capable of sociopathic behavior under the right conditions. This is analogous to situational depression, which results not from a genetic tendency to be in that place on the continuum or chemical imbalances in the brain, but from specific lousy things that happen to people.

Similarly, widespread situational sociopathology can result from truly threatening events, like the 9-11 attacks. The urge to strike back indiscriminately will eventually fade as we get back to normal, just as we eventually recover from the death of someone close, divorce, job loss and the like.

So, we have a core group of near-sociopaths that aren't going to change, and the rest of us who are capable of temporarily acting like them. If that first group isn't too large, we're in luck. All it takes to devalue the conservative memes is for more of us to be like the actors in Milgram's second set of experiments. A single voice saying "No, don't apply more intense shocks" snapped the rest of his experimental subjects out of their befuddled-by-authority stupor.

Any suggestions on realistically dealing with the minority of incurable non-empaths? Just let them have their Ten Commandment monuments? (It's certainly no favor to someone with Asperger's syndrome to advise them to just get along without their collections of rote recipes for social interaction and go by instinct and direct perception like other people do. That makes about as much sense as hollering "Make more insulin, dammit!" at diabetics.) Go along with a really punitive legal system to some extent? What?

[Sentath]

35. You need to post this as its own thread

This is a really interesting angle from which to analyze not just the political mess, but the organizing of an orderly society.

[GTurck]

37. We were taught...

that empathy is the same as liberalism and therefore un-American. This wasn't explicit, of course, but the lessons learned are the same. It is taught in school and work as I win- you lose. It is taught at home by seeing others as practicing a zero sum game at our expense. It is taught by calling empathy wimpy and not manly.
I have just had a long e-mail conversation with someone I consider a friend (a conservative though)who sent me pictures of the newest addition to the Cook County Jail. I am a native of Chicago and know something about that jail having seen it or passed by it hundreds of times. It is a prison and a particularly depressing one but she was upset by the luxuries being heaped upon the undeserving prisoners in this brand new section with glass curtain walls facing the outside world and the large recreation area. As a liberal I see things much differently from her and much of it is based on empathy. She cannot separate felons from non-felons; long termer's from those who have been stupid and un-empathetic in their daily actions but not criminal. To her and so many others they all are guilty and need punishment - harsh and minimally livable.
Now I must say that both of us have had family members in jail at one time or another and also have relatives in law enforcement or prisons. We both have dealt with burglary or attempted break-ins. My insights and feelings about that jail is totally at odds with hers but why?
My answer is that she was taught that those prisoners should have no comforts because they are not worthy of them. It is the Puritan Ethic at its worst. And that is the case. We are not supposed to care for anyone we are not related to. Far too few understand that we are really are all related. The fact is that part of the American story is a certain self-righteousness that believes any exceptions should come to those for whom we care but not for others who have earned whatever treatment they receive.
My friend also resents that inmates may leave prison with a college education since her own children had to pay for their own. Again lack of empathy except for one's own. It is the root of conservatism to lack this empathy and their attitude finds resonance in those who have learned to only care about me or mine.

[crimsonblue]

23. i don't think selfishness and self absorption

is necessarily the same as a lack of empathy. selfishness entails placing your own values above some else's. a lack of empathy entails a disregard or non-recognition of anoter person's values.

[Cobalt-60]

24. that's certainly part of it

But I think there's an active component as well.
Consider cruelty to animals.
There's nothing to gain.
But they do it anyway.

[Senator]

25. Impeachophobic Non-Empathy: A Thought Experiment

Try to imagine yourself explaining to an innocent, tortured detainee your reasons for opposing immediate impeachment.

---

[snappyturtle]

26. K&R Your post is excellent fodder as an explanation to the 'evil'

cabal we are experiencing. Yesterday and again this morning, I watched the video of bush at River Oaks fund raiser. It is an example of his total lack of empathy or recognition of the suffering fellow citizens are encountering in the housing department. Yes, he is evil.

edit: addition: Think about LBJ's torment over the death of soldiers in Vietnam. His empathy ate him up. bush doesn't seem to even flinch over the death and maiming of those in today's occupation.

[DailyGrind51]

27. "Capitalism without conscience or compassion" meets your definition.

[rAVES]

28. This blew me out of the water! k&r!

[pipi_k]

29. Strange coincidence...

I had CNN on this morning and who was yapping about Obama in the Middle East but Glenn Beck, going on and on about how "peace at any price is never a good idea" and how "our enemies are EVIL", and I thought, wow... how ironic

All these fruitcakes say that people who want to kill us are EVIL, but when we want to kill them, we're not evil. We're just being Patriotic or doing God's work or some other bullshit reason.

Evil is in the eye (and mind) of the beholder. Sometimes we project our own inner Evil onto other people....

[fascisthunter]

30. This is another Reason Many Compare BushCo with Nazis

"In contrast, the regressivism of the Bush/Cheney administration would have us ignore the economic, social and environmental consequences of unregulated commerce, and also have us dismantle Social Security, impoverish public education, tolerate inadequate health care for millions of our fellow citizens, abolish fundamental constitutional rights, and engage in aggressive wars against unthreatening countries, all of this with minimal regard for the human misery caused by these policies. To do all this, requires a deliberate stifling of feelings of empathy, and what David Hume called the "natural moral sentiment" of benevolence: a genuine concern for the well-being of others."

[SlingBlade]

32. Awesome Post, A Totally Enlightening

definition of Liberal and Conservative thought

Thank you so much

K&R

[Mira]

34. I wish I could recommend this post a hundred times. Stunningly clear.

[proReality]

36. K&R n/t

[Baby Snooks]

38. Absence of Ethos

"Absence of empathy" is likewise, I submit, "the one characteristic that connects" most of the immoral and misbegotten tenets of Bushism: that dogmatic mix of market absolutism, libertarianism, corporatism and simple greed that falsely describes itself as "conservatism," and which I choose to call "regressivism." "Absence of empathy" is the essence of evil which, if unchecked and unreversed, is certain to bring about the demise of the American republic as we know it, just as it led to the fall of the Third Reich.
___________________________________________________________________

It really is an absence of ethos rather than empathy and the immorality you speak of is really amorality. We no longer have a sense of morality in this country and quite honestly the same lack of ethos is to be found in the Democratic Party among those who have enabled Bush as so many have. And the lack of a sense of morality is the result of a lack of ethos.

The vast majority of people in this country simply cannot do the right thing because they do not know what the right thing to do is.

An immoral person knows something is immoral and doesn't care while an amoral person sees only what serves his or her own purpose without regard to the sense of morality involved.

The latter sums up not only this president but the vast majority of Americans.

[Dystopian]

39. Heartfelt thanks for one of the best posts ever. k&r

Thankfully, I came upon this just in time to give you #49, as I spent much time reading many of the great replies.... I now need to go back to read more of the links...but am so impressed...
I have no words, just thanks.




peace~

[bonito]

40. This makes sooo much sense

It cuts right through democratic/republican liberal/conservative issues and shows it's ugly face for what it is for all to see. Thank you!

[yurbud]

41. kick

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. This goes very well with what I've observed about conservatives

If you tell them that someone suffered, they automatically think up reasons why that person deserved it.

[Blue_Tires]

44. bookmarked for later