Mark said, "I'd be very happy to talk to you about empathy just
so long as you understand that I am primarily an historian of medicine
so, while I am all for promoting greater compassion and awareness of the
predicament of those less fortunate than myself, I am wary of this
notion of empathy as intrinsically pro-social and moral. This strikes me
as a very recent notion, traceable to the birth of the psy sciences
around the turn of the last century. Moreover, if alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged is
to be more than a feel-good sound bite it has to be married with a real
political agenda, which means making choices and taking sides (in my
opinion of course)"
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:
The Politics of Empathy
"When Mitt Romney was caught on camera writing-off 47 per cent of
Americans as tax avoiders, Democrats were quick to jump on his remarks
as another example of the Republican Party’s ‘empathy deficit’. Since
Barack Obama identified a lack of empathy as the cause of America’s
bitter partisan divides, a series of studies have claimed to show that
conservatives score lower on empathy than liberals. As one would expect,
Republicans contest these findings, arguing that such studies tend to
favour Democratic principles of compassion and care over Republican
philosophies of autonomy and self-help. It’s not that they have less
empathy, they argue, it is just that there are times when other moral
values such as justice and self-determination take precedence and
compassion should take a back seat."
Neuroscientists are not the only ones to see empathy – or
its absence – everywhere these days. According to
Barack
Obama
the"empathy
deficit"
is
a more pressing political problem for America than the federal deficit
and holds the key to the success of his second term as he seeks to build
bridges with Republicans and tackle the wave of horrific shootings that
last year disfigured American communities from Colorado to Connecticut.
On this side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, George Osborne's enthusiasm for
welfare cuts is explained by the coalition cabinet's"lack
of empathy"for
the poor."
