Today I will be talking about the idea of empathetic death, no this is not about sympathy or compassion for those who have died or their family. To understand this idea you need to understand empathy. Empathy the thing that makes us human, Now the dictionary definition, Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This is the definition of the word Empathy according to the new oxford American dictionary. Now you may be thinking, "how does this relate to me?" well here is how. Have you ever walked past someone who looked sad and not paused or stopped? Or not comforted your sibling when they were crying? What about not taking the time to see the other side of an argument before passing judgment? That, right there, those seemly little things, those small apparently insinginfent events, that is a lack of empathy. To say that the idea of empathy is a dying idea is not a far stretch. Empathy springs from compassion and compassion has nearly ceased to exist. Today I will be speaking to you about the idea that Empathy is dying, questioning why, and showing how to fix it.
So we are all guilty of it, I mean come on there has been at least 1 time you teased some one right? Or ignored a person. We all do it every day we cant help it we are just humans after all. but the lack of empathy in today’s society is a serious issue, according to an article posted in the Boston post the average collage student is 40% less empathetic then 35 years ago. This is a big problem it affects everyone. Lack of empathy can lead to adverse side effects, including bulling, the inability to connect with others on a personal level, Narcissism, and so on. this in turn can lead to depression resentment bitterness and anger. These feeling can then be acted upon in terrible ways, suicide, and school shootings, even terrorism.
Bulling, more then a forth of all children have been or are bullied. That is nearly 4 billon children in the United States! this causes severe emotional trauma. The kids that have been bullied become the next group of bullies. Sally was made fun of for being tall, 5 years later she was putting people down for being short. This is something that happens every day in countless schools playgrounds and homes. It’s a vicious cycle. A lack of empathy can be directly linked to bulling. With out empathy a person can not express or assess the feeling of them selves or another. This leads to a lack of understanding and care. After all who cares about something we don't understand?
Narcissistic having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance. This is the definition of the word Narcissistic according to the new oxford American dictionary. This is expressed in so many ways. Like the ever popular "selfie" to only talking about your self to zoning out when other people are talking. Many times we act as though we care about others. We fake listening. We donate to charities we volunteer. But just ask your self are you donating or volunteering for the charity ... or truly just for your self? Right now we are more connected then ever before, you can talk to some one across the world in a couple seconds, but still we ignore the people sitting right next to us to twitter or face book about our selves so other people can see how amazing we have it, or how great we are. So many people around are more concerned about how they look or that they are better then some one else, then about their fellow people. Society today is narcissistic we cant help it when everyone around you is self centered you become self centered to. But we don’t need to be.
When was the last time you had a real conversation with some one? Can you remember the last time you looked into some ones eyes and just talked? Talked about things that mattered, talked about life love or caring? Can you even imagine actually knowing another person? I know that I have met people who don't really care about another person and can not connect with the people around them. People who cant bring them selves to think about another person and how they feel. All of this can be traced back ending at the decrees of empathy in society.
Now the big question... drumroll please!... and the question is…Why. What about empathy makes it able to die out, able to be lost from 1 generation to the next? Could it be the natural follow up to an abundance to technology? Or could it be the urbanization of the world? Or perhaps some one decided that compassion and empathy are not cool or attractive. Maybe some celebrity some where said "huh I am to cool to care about other people I don't need to be concerned for them. I can put people down at every opportunity and no one will stop Me." could that be it? Are we scared of empathy, scared that we have feelings, that we might seem weak? Or is the answer that we simply don't care any more. That we have become lazy, we don't want to make the effort to care. I think that some where along the line we realized that things would take less effort if we didn't bother to consider the feelings of the people around us.
ok so, now you have seen the problem and possible causes. But how can we fix this problem? What do we, as people, need to do to stop empathy from dying out completely? This is how you. each and every man woman and child can help to fix empathy to stop it from disappearing. Now every one take a deep breathe and brace your selves for a huge challenge. What you need to do is… care. Lots of build up right? But if every one here took 1 minuet to help some one else with out doing it for them selves or there reputation, we would start to reverse the clock that has been counting down. We will be the generation who brings empathy back. I know that you are all probably thinking that it sounds easy. But the truth is that caring is one of the hardest things we could do in todays culture. But its one of the most impactful. A single act of care can change an entire life. Don’t you want to be the generation that fosters understanding between people. The generation that stops fighting pointless wars, and instead invest the war funds in helping people? Then fix the problem. Start caring show compassion show love.
So, the idea of empathetic death, no this is not about sympathy or compassion for those who have died or their family. To really understand this idea you need to understand empathy. Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, this is the definition of the word Empathy according to the new oxford American dictionary. Empathy, the thing that makes us human. This has every thing to do with you, to do with everyone. It is the cause of so many problems. Every thing from Bulling to terrorism. How can we claim to be human if we don’t try to stop it? We need empathy. We need to save empathy. We can fix it, bring it back from the brink, but it wont be easy. It will take time. It will take effort. The effort of every person. All you need to do is care, you need show that you are not the only thing you care about. Show that you want the people around you to feel good. Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, doesn’t sound hard does it? So why can’t we have empathy? All you need to do is care. Empathetic death, a real problem that we can fix.
ns 15.158.61.17da2
