Editorial

The lost art of empathy

J. Peder Zane Author, Design in Nature
Font Size:

Nothing symbolizes the nastiness of American politics better than the constant calls for civility.

Every time some loudmouth goes off the rails — Rush Limbaugh insults a law student, Bill Maher describes Sarah Palin in terms we can’t reproduce here — heads shake and fingers wag amidst the strident demands for decency.

But notice that those calls come from one corner at a time: liberals only get their knickers twisted when conservatives cross the line; mega dittos in reverse for conservatives. The pleas for civility are really just a cudgel one side uses to smack the other. It is opportunism posing as high-mindedness.

No one sees the speck in their own eye because, well, they don’t see it. Combatants on each side of the partisan divide view their opponents in extremely ungenerous terms — as mean, selfish, radical communists/fascists. And it all seems fine. After all, one person’s insult is another person’s truth; one person’s harsh words are another person’s telling it like it is.

The calls for civility are doomed so long as, in our heart of hearts, we don’t feel particularly civil toward one another. And, we don’t. That’s why we have handed large chunks of the public discourse to cable TV blowhards and editorial page gas bags who express the vox populi through ad hominem attacks.

Make no mistake, they are prospering because they speak for us — OK, not you and me, but everybody else. They dominate our discourse because we let them. We, in turn, sound more and more like them.

The calls for civility may be better than nothing, but they set an awfully low bar. Civility is the bare minimum. It’s how we act towards those we don’t respect, the slight restraint we exercise when what we really want to do is punch someone in the nose.

If we want to move our politics and culture in a positive direction, we should stop calling for civility and start practicing the lost art of empathy.

We should try to see things through the other person’s eyes, try to understand how they think and feel and why their view of the world makes sense to them. Instead of telling others what we think, empathy empowers us to ask where they’re coming from.

Practicing empathy does not mean that we will adopt their point of view. In fact, it may lead us to disagree with them even more strongly, especially if the other person is a virulent racist or a suicide bomber bent on targeting civilians. But, even in such extreme cases, empathy enables us to recognize their humanity. Just like us, a mixture of experience and education, desire and need, has led them to adopt views that make sense for them (even if we conclude that those views are dead wrong or even immoral).

Despite the white-hot rhetoric spouted so easily these days, few Americans are extremists. They are fellow human beings doing the best they can to find meaning in a hurly burly world.

Empathy fosters humility and respect by reminding us that our view is only one way of looking at things in a world with few absolute truths.

Empathy is particularly useful in political debates because it helps us find common ground — to see a little bit of ourselves in our opponents. Today’s hot-button issues are controversial precisely because there are appealing arguments on each side. Although we tend to paint such questions as black and white — you’re on one side or the other, for or against — they pulse with the tension of competing values. To cite three examples:

  • Our views on taxes hinge on the balance we strike between private property and one’s duties to the state.
  • Our views on the criminal justice system hinge on the balance between security and liberty.
  • Our views on abortion hinge on the balance between protecting life and self-determination.

We all strike a balance that works for us in the same way: by embracing views that reflect our view of the world and that will, we believe, advance our self-interest, which is a complex mix of economic, social, intellectual and psychological factors.

The art of empathy helps us focus on this common struggle, spurring us to treat one another with decency and respect. It also increases our chance of changing minds — knowing what’s important to your opponent is the most powerful tool in any negotiation.

This is not an easy skill. Truth be told, I struggle with it every day. But that hard work seems preferable to surrendering to our toxic politics, which are preventing us from confronting the immense challenges we all face together.

J. Peder Zane teaches Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Augustine’s College. He is the author, with Adrian Bejan, of “Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel