A certain level of empathy is involved with revolutionary thought, innovation and social change. When being exposed to social, political and even economic disparities, brutality, inequity, oppression, etc., one of the key elements in motivating individuals to do something in order to better circumstances (for themselves as well as for others), is that there must be a meaningful connection to what is being exposed; we must feel empathy and compassion toward the beings that are suffering. Yet we do not live in an environment that readily fosters empathy or compassion.
Why is it easier for most people to stand up for the environment, for whales and dolphins, and not for their fellow human beings? Do we empathize with their voiceless victimization? The fact that they cannot stand-up for themselves in a society that consumes the very fiber of their being, their very lives?
Might this not, in itself, be symbolic of our own state in a culture that is consuming our own lives, our own spirits in the machinations of consumerism?
In effect, as everything that makes us human is commercialized and commodified, we are distanced from seeing each other as humans and tend more to view each other as objects.
One of the most disturbing elements about the struggle for women’s rights in the West is that often it is women who damage other women, or respond negatively to women who are struggling against the forces that degrade women in society. Why is this? Women have been presented as objects for so long that other women do not view them as sisters or daughters, but as objects themselves! This impedes the ability of women to band together to struggle as a unified force against a misogynistic culture. In popular media, we often see women pitted against women in cat-fights. Reality TV is over-run by this cattiness.
The objectification of human beings (and even animals and the environment) begins at the fringes, with the marginalized… those people we don’t empathize with because they are too “not us” or they have already been objectified. This works to inoculate us to the slowly encroaching movement of the commodification and objectification of everything. The more we allow a feeling of separation to come between us and any living thing, the easier it is to dehumanize and to objectify: “ah, she’s a model, it’s her job to eat a pea a week and pose with her ass in the air” or “ah, he’s a celebrity, he should EXPECT to be hounded by the press” or “ah, she chose to wear that, she should expect to be raped!” or “AH! he’s Muslim, must be a terrorist! He deserves no rights!” or “AH! it’s a cow, it’s meant to be FOOD, who cares how it is treated!”
Our humanity is consumed as we succumb to being consumers of everything.
If we are to do anything to make of this world a more pro-social place for ourselves and our children’s children, we must embrace our inter-connectedness and empathize, even with the most extreme other.
How do we do this? We listen to each other’s stories, the narratives of others, especially the stories of those we know least about.
Our oldest form of entertainment, it turns out, is also our most valuable pro-social tool: storytelling. It also uses our most primitive form of technology: communication.
Language, the communication of ideas to each other, the telling and receiving of each other’s stories are truly revolutionary acts.
My Fellow American
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