Building a Culture of Empathy

aishah · 08-29-2012, 02:50 PM

i think my discomfort is with the idea that one can make blanket statements about empathy in a society.

i have friends who are from syria and have relatives there. thinking of what they've told me, and talking with people who've lived there (or in other areas with a lot of conflict and poverty such as palestine), i am not sure i could see them saying the same thing about empathy being the exception rather than the rule. i don't want to speak for them, but i do want to challenge the idea that one can make blanket statements about people doing what is good/right/moral or practicing empathy in a society.

if your definition of happiness and well-being has to do with serotonin and being "at peace" or in the buddhist sense, having equanimity, i don't understand how the prevalence of that in the united states is any different than in syria or south sudan.

08-29-2012, 02:50 PM	#13
aishah Member How Do You Identify?: queer stone femme shark baby girl Preferred Pronoun?: she, her, little one Relationship Status: dating myself. Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: dallas, tx Posts: 1,495 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 13,823 Thanked 6,439 Times in 1,288 Posts Rep Power: 21474851	i think my discomfort is with the idea that one can make blanket statements about empathy in a society. i have friends who are from syria and have relatives there. thinking of what they've told me, and talking with people who've lived there (or in other areas with a lot of conflict and poverty such as palestine), i am not sure i could see them saying the same thing about empathy being the exception rather than the rule. i don't want to speak for them, but i do want to challenge the idea that one can make blanket statements about people doing what is good/right/moral or practicing empathy in a society. if your definition of happiness and well-being has to do with serotonin and being "at peace" or in the buddhist sense, having equanimity, i don't understand how the prevalence of that in the united states is any different than in syria or south sudan.