How Empathy Became a Threat
nytimes.com
How Empathy Became a Threat
At present, we seem to be suffering from a widespread failure of literary imagination. We have become worse at imagining the experiences of other people, less inclined to credit these experiences as being as valid and real as our own. Why is this? In part, I think, because of the methods by, and pace at which, we acquire our stories. After all,... See more
Yes, you could argue that many Trump fanatics lack basic human empathy (or at least, are ambivalent to the suffering of others). But let’s be honest — the rest of us have been struggling with empathy for some time now.
I have found that empathy, the revered and problematic cousin to altruism, is at the root of the problem.