By Mary Jaksch
When you follow daily news, it seems like there is more and more hostility and brutality in the world. But that isn’t necessarily the case, says one of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin. He is the bestselling author of The Empathetic Civilization.
He makes the important point, that human beings and maybe other large mammals have so-called mirror neurons in the brain. When we observe other human beings experiencing emotions, such as anger, frustration, sense of rejection, or joy, the same area in our brain lights up as if we are having that experience ourselves.
We are soft wired to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves.
There is a whole lot more research going on in neurology and child development that suggests that we are soft wired not for aggression, violence, self-interest, or utilitarianism, but for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship.
Our first drive is to actually belong.
In an amazing video that you can see below, Rifkin lays out some compelling ideas. He shows how civilization has been steadily moving toward more empathy. It’s inspiring and heartening.
Watch the inspiring video by Jeremy Rifkin below.
(If you’re reading this by email, or want to watch the video on an iPhone or iPad, click here to watch the video.)
Let us know what you think about this video in the comments (If you are reading this post in an email, just click on the headline to get to the blog with the comments.)
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Mary, I do not use the news to measure anything about the world and about people and about the general state of our civilization. The news is sensationalized, dramatized to sell and commercialized beyond belief, not to mention highly politicized. I travel about 100,000 miles a year and usually to new and exotic locales and from my view, the world is a wonderful place and people are generally very nice and polite and always willing to help.
.-= Farnoosh´s last blog ..A Step toward Change- Mastering our Reactions =-.
@Farnoosh, I love your perspective, Farnoosh: “The world is a wonderful place and people are generally very nice and polite and always willing to help.” That’s how I experience the world as well.
wonderful video — both the ideas and the animation. I’m going to pass this on far and wide. By and large I agree with and am inspired by Rifkin’s main gist, that we are empathic beings driven not by greed but by solidarity as the commercial darwinists have told us. However I also must admit that this perspective is rather Eurocentric, focusing on the hot white center of modern civilization, not the millions of people who are still today not concerned with apps and coffee but food, water and shelter, just like our stone age ancestors. Technology has indeed given us the ability to self-organize when sudden tragedies like the Haiti earthquake occur, but we (as a culture) also largely accept the everyday violence that occurs as part and parcel of civilization. Such as there are more slaves today then ever before in the history of the world. What is happening in the second and third world is largely hidden from us. Our cognitive advances (from tribal, religious to state level networks) mirror social infrastructure, and the iphone is not enough to prevent the everyday tragedies that we accept as part of globalization techno-industrialization. So, anyways: yes, we have an opportunity to reach out more than ever before, but we must also accept the dark side of the expansion of civilization that comes with this need in the first place. greater risks and hopes: that is the sharp edge of the 21st century. no doubt about it: we are frail and we are alive!
.-= Ryan´s last blog ..The Journey East =-.
@Ryan, Thanks for your interesting comment about this being an eurocentric view of the world, Ryan.
I’m interested to see whether technological advances in so-called Third World countries shape the behavior of governments in the future. News of repression and corruption leaks out more readily now and can be witnessed by a global audience.
@Mary Jaksch, hi Mary, yes, it’s amazing how an audience can shift policy and that’s really the power of our generation as media consumers and news makers. Twitter and facebook and other social networking allow us to keep the spotlight on after the local broadcast does its 30 second spot, and long after the story has gone to the back of the newspaper behind the latest football news and the hottest celebrities of the moment. The role that twitter played in Iran last year was unprecedented — real time info for activists and non-policed information sharing. so I do have some hope there.
Also : I’ll second Lauren’s comment about the book “Blessed Unrest.” it’s inspiring, but also down to earth about the big picture and the seriousness of the challenges ahead.
.-= Ryan´s last blog ..How to Have More Lucid Dreams- Through Lucid Living =-.
We are social beings and are created with the ability to be empathetic with others. There are certainly stories everyday of people being selfless and altruistic, but the news seems to neglect these. If only the news would make an effort to show these stories people would change their perspective about the nature of the world. We must learn to view the world and others as good and beneficent if we want to have a healthy mindstate. Though there are people out there that don’t have the capacity for empathy, such as psychopaths, but the majority of people are good and would respond to others pain in kind. A good resource for information on this is “Social Intelligence” by Daniel Golemen. Thanks!
.-= Joe Wilner´s last blog ..What’s your Gratitude Cycle- Here’s how to be more grateful =-.
@Joe Wilner, Thanks for your tip about Goleman’s book Social Intelligence, Joe.
In order for evolution to continue and for the Earth to prosper, empathy must be nurtured. The industrial food system is unsustainable, and by definition, will end one day. So the human race must go back to the cycle of farms that does not require input in order to survive. Similarly, humans still destroy each other and walk by homeless on the street. Until we can view each human as an extension of ourselves, there is always that danger that one person can destroy the whole race with a single weapon. Awesome post!
I do and always have believed, that we as human being are born “good” and it is our life experience that dictates otherwise , if we let it. Our “connection” with others whether emotionally or due to a physical thread, remains generally compassionate and empathetic. Surround your self with this type of people and you will remain that way too. You will always find what you are looking for no matter how negative the situation looks at the time – perception can be an interesting obstacle. We all have a heart – lets use it in the right way!
Janet H. Ontario
@Janet, Thanks for your comment, Janet. It seems to me that our own behavior is mirrored by the world. If we are empathetic, friendly, and helpful – this is how we experience others.
Mary,
This is a very interesting post and thought provoking discussion. I found Ryan’s comments of great interest.
Having empathy and being compassionate are not exclusive to seeing the world clearly just as it is with all the violence and injustice that there is. It is the very suffering that we see and experience ourselves – because we all suffer – that stirs us to greater depths of kindness and further acts of compassion.
May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering!
.-= Sandra Lee´s last blog ..Timeless blogging advice- 12 great links =-.
I really liked this post and similar to the other commenters, I was definitely inspired to learn that the research supports the fact that people are softwired with compassion, affection, attachment and compassion. I have just always believed deep down that if you can get past people’s idiosyncrasies and egos, you will always find a thoughtful, kind and compassionate person. It is such a refreshing perspective that he shares and definitely is good to know that empathy is one of the most important drivers for the majority of people. Thanks for bringing this video to my attention. I will keep it as a reference point so I can revisit it if I come across challenging people
Sometimes you really do need to be reminded of people’s good side.
Dear Mary,
I love to see this being addressed and have been focusing on this topic a lot lately.
Recently I finished a book called Blessed Unrest. The author, Paul Hawken, pointed out that there are over 1 million (possibly 2 million) organizations working toward social justice, human rights, and environmental integrity.
When I hear no one cares anymore I wonder where we are looking! I am heartened and inspired by the compassion and empathy so many people have.
Thanks for a great video and for addressing this inspiring topic!
Love,
Lauren
.-= Lauren´s last blog ..Basking In The Arms Of Love =-.
Hi Mary,
Lovely, thought-provoking post. That is one reason I don’t really read the newspapers. At least in India, I’ve found that most of the news is sensationalized, marketed and promoted by politicians and big companies. Why is it that the good things are hardly ever reported and if they are, they’re assigned to the back pages.
I love how you talk about the soft wiring to experience another’s emotions. That is so in line with what the Dalai Lama always talks about.
Thank you so much for sharing this video and discussing this topic. Much-needed.
Warmly,
.-= Prerna´s last blog ..7 Effective and Easy Ways to Live Healthier =-.
Excellent post, Mary! Very interesting research! Inspiring! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
.-= Marianne´s last blog ..Pure Inspiration and Pure Love! =-.
In my own life I feel that when I take the time to work on myself and self -discovery I become much more empathetic in my daily life. In both a local and global sense. It seems to me that at this point in time there is a shift towards hostility in everyday life which brings out our defensiveness and critical tendencies towards ourselves and others. At the same time I am also sensing that our awareness is heightened and there is a realization that there are choices to be made in life, choices that then become our responsibility. As a teacher I feel that empathy is a concept that needs to be discussed more readily with our children at school as well as in our homes. Thanks for this post and video (great animation by the way), I will be passing this along too!
.-= Jacqui´s last blog ..The Party’s Over… =-.
I guess headlines about empathy and compassion only sell during the holidays but 99 people out of 100 that I encounter seem to radiate it in waves. I think I will stick to reading people and not papers.
.-= Clearly Composed´s last blog .. Tuesday’s Thought =-.
Hi Mary,
I make the joke that if I were President of the United States, I would require every citizen to spend 6 months in a third-world country in order to recognize what they have and to realize that we are all more alike than we are different.
I have been traveling the world ever since I was a teenager and the world is beautiful place which is filled with beautiful people. So to me, the world is a compassionate and loving place.
The media engages in spreading fear because they think that is what sells and it does because if people wanted to hear more positive stuff, the media would have such stories.
.-= Nadia Ballas-Ruta ~ Happy Lotus Lifestyles´s last blog ..Forgot About Mission Statements…What’s Your Creed =-.
This is a good discussion. I agree that the news provides a negative slant on human nature. Media is a business after all. Fear is a powerful motivator used in all types of advertising. I also believe that our perception of the world is a personal experience and can change. For example, when I put a little too much news into my head it will influence what I see in the world, and what I end up putting out. A lot of attention is put on nutrition (what we put in our bodies) and the effects that bad nutrition can have. The same is true for what we choose to put into our minds. Everything that goes in has an effect.
.-= Desmond Greer´s last blog ..Letting Go of Fear – Part One- Free Floating Fear =-.
Hi Mary, & All,
This was absolutely a brilliant exposition of a lot of complex, relatively recent, research. I’ve been reading bits & snippets of some of this, in various media over the past few years, but this presentation did a wonderful job of synthesizing it all & presenting it in easily digestible form for those of us without expertise in the psychological sciences. There has been something of a political brouhaha in the United States over the past few months, springing from a Supreme Court ruling stating essentially that organizations have the same constitutional right of freedom of speech as individuals, & therefore no government agency can limit in any way how much money any organization (domestic or foreign) can spend on advertising to either promote a political candidate for electoral office, and/or discourage voters from voting for another. Already millions of dollars are being spent in the lead-up to elections that won’t be held until November. I’ve been trying to understand why the people who have that much money to spend to influence public opinion are so confident that the investment will pay off. I suppose it may be a bit cynical to assume that its an investment, but to me it seems kind of obvious that the candidate who benefits from the most campaign advertising money spent, be it positive or negative, is the one most likely to be “for sale”. Yet this advertising works consistently to get really bad candidates elected. This presentation was kind of an aha! moment. I can see how this advertising often works to subtly manipulate people’s better instincts. To have them see the “suffering” of some hypothetical fellow citizens, & urge them to vote for the candidate who will rescue them from whatever sad fate otherwise awaits them, or against the candidate who will almost certainly precipitate this tragedy. It may be remarkably cynical, but now I get why it works. The only way I can imagine to neutralize this kind of emotional manipulation might be to find some way to urge the voting public to simply ignore the content of political advertising, & consider only its sheer volume. Look at how much all of this advertising costs, look at who benefits from it, & ask themselves “What are the odds that the people spending all of this money are doing so solely out of public spiritedness? What might they expect from this candidate in return?” when he or she wins. A number of posters have alluded to the dearth of media reportage of positive news. I’m not so sure that there isn’t more to that strategy than simply “if it bleeds, it leads”. Who benefits from keeping a population in a constant state of heightened anxiety by incessantly stimulating the fear reflex? Does this perhaps cause many people to be even more susceptible to emotional manipulation? I’m beginning to think that cultivating Zen mind is a necessary means of self defense in a media saturated society. I for one feel the need to learn to maintain a kind of steady compassion that is not subject to being whipsawed by the sudden unexpected onset of powerful emotions, regardless of whether they are generated within my own mind, or thrust upon me from without. And in this, frankly, I can use all of the help I can get.
Hi Mary,
Very interesting video. I think this ties with an idea in Psychology that altruistic behaviour comes about because the suffering of others causes us distress.
I wanted to comment though on the idea that people believe that the world is becoming more brutal and hostile. Clearly it isn’t. However a large section of the population comes under the Guardian personality type (Overview here http://www.keirsey.com/handler.aspx?s=keirsey&f=fourtemps&tab=2&c=overview)
These are characteristically pessimistic worriers and are concerned with the well-being of society and social fabric. It is in their nature to worry that society is declining in morality.
Ironically they are also the type that most typifies the message of this video as they are the most likely to want to care, provide and protect others.
Thank you Rob for supplying this link. I followed it & took the test. I think that I may know myself just well enough to have confidence in the accuracy of most of the results, & I could transfer that confidence to the parts that were revealing. Now I have a couple of new perspectives from which to examine some of my thinking, behavior, & relationship interactions. By the way, for what its worth, I’m apparently an Artisan type.