All the World’s Ills Solved with One Simple Thing

February 20, 2018

I hope this finds you well. In my part of the world, I’m tapping my foot, waiting for my backorder of rain to arrive (I think some might be delivered tomorrow, but you just don’t know with these things.) In the mean time, our main source of water (the creek) is dry for the first time in years. I much prefer a bit too much wet over a bit too much dry. Droughts bite.

Which brings us to empathy.

Remember Sting singing “I hope the Russians love their children too?” It was a call for empathy. McCartney wrote a bunch of them. “Hey Jude,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Another Day,” “Lady Madonna” — they’re all either expressions of empathy or invitations to experience it.

I think empathy needs more air time. Sure, you’ve got your loving-kindness and your compassion. Those are both great. And you can’t go past a good dose of caring, can you?

But I’ve been thinking about the value of empathy, and all of the things that might be different if our fellow humans experienced greater empathy with one another and the rest of the planet—if people really did walk that mile in another’s shoes.

Here’s a partial list:

We’d have a metric crud-tonne less violence in the world, because people would not be able to do unto others as they would not want done unto themselves.
There’s be less othering. If I can empathise with you, I see our commonalities. We’re more likely to reach a state of “us” rather than “you” and “me.”
Everyone would be vegan.
Everyone would rather be a breatharian.
You’d have a lot fewer examples of doctors living in a particular country for 40 years, and then being arrested by an out-of-control government department.

I’m going to go so far as suggest that *all* the world’s ills come down to a lack of empathy. Global warming? Lack of empathy of the future. #MeToo? That one’s obvious. Terrorism? War? World hunger? Nastiness in a comments section? Racism? Whatever-ism? The neighbour’s dog who barks in the middle of the night? Gun violence? Bad customer service? The ever-growing disparity between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots?

All of it could be solved with a radical empathy implant in all concerned.

So that’s my question for you this week. What in your life can you solve with your own dose of radical empathy?

Leave a comment and let me know.