Stop Fascism: Chris
Hedges in Portland, Oregon.
"Dr Rio in Camus novel the plague. He is not driven to act by ideology,
he is driven by empathy. The duty to minister to the suffering of others
no matter the cost. To act on this empathy,
the empathy for human beings, locked in cages.
the empathy for undocumented mothers and fathers being torn from their
children on the streets of our cities.
the empathy for Muslims who are demonized and banned from our shores,
fleeing the wars and terror we created.
the empathy for poor people of color gunned down by police in our
streets.
the empathy for girls and woman trafficked in prostitution.
the empathy for our great and glorious earth which gives us life and
which is being destroyed.
is not only viewed by despots as political but seditious."
So I was in the Middle East in the days
after 9/11. And we had garnered the empathy of not only most of the
world, but the Muslim world who were appalled at what had been done in
the name of their religion. And we had major religious figures like
Sheikh Tantawi, the head of al-Azhar—who died recently—who after the
attacks of 9/11 not only denounced them as a crime against humanity,
which they were, but denounced Osama bin Laden as a fraud … someone
who had no right to issue fatwas or religious edicts, no religious
legitimacy, no religious training. And the tragedy was that if we had
the courage to be vulnerable, if we had built on that empathy, we
would be far safer and more secure today than we are.
GRITtv: Chris
Hedges: Demonizing Empathy
What happens when we decide empathy is a bad thing? Chris Hedges says
that empathy is key and we have forgotten its importance--and that's why
we're a dying nation.
