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Spotlight on empathy 
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Post Spotlight on empathy
Rather than suppress important information, we should highlight it. There are things that unite us. There is the thirst for knowledge. There is the desire for equal rights. There is the need for loving care. There is the pursuit of happiness. There is the sanctity of life.

And behind all of this, there is empathy.

I want to shine the spotlight on this post.

Because I care to see a united people.

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Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:58 pm
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Good post. It made me think of earlier today when I traveled to town as a blizzard was coming in. The news said it would be bad and maybe last for a few days. I was out of grain for the horses and needed some food as well. The trip to town is one of the curviest roads in the country and has a 1/2" shoulder the entire 20 miles! Ad to that hills, bridges and blind curves and you sure don't want any ice to go with. On my way back, it was really coming in and I was glad to be getting back. As I looked down at my gas gauge, I thought, "oh no...I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING...GAS!!!!. Next thing I see is something you almost never see in the middle of nowhere...I hitch hiker. :shock:

Of course, I shot by him as I was trying to get home, and thinking, "What is that fool doing walking 20 miles from the nearest town?" I know he was a hitch hiker because he was carrying a backpack and was covered with snow...but that wasn't my concern. Another 4 miles found me stopped and thinking, "What if that fellow was me. What would I want someone else to do?" So, I turned around and went to find him. When I did, he said he was heading for Oklahoma for a job. "I responded"..."on foot....in THIS weather?" He said that he had no other means. I told him that he couldn't be walking 20 miles in this blizzard and told him to jump in. He asked if I could take him to the nearest town, and so I did and gave him some money for his journey. Then, the 20 miles back home, on icy roads.

It seems that "empathy" requires action of us.


Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:44 pm

Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:16 pm
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Then let's list our actions here... :!: :!:

The day is young where I live so I will report back later...or not, whichever the case may be!

Warm wishes...
Lee

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Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:15 am
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Well I only went out to the supermarket today, but I was still presented with an opportunity... :) I approached I would never normall approach. This guy is pretty much shunned in our town and carries a deep dark (not so) secret. I smiled and joked and felt him relax a little as I walked away.

It sometime's doesn't take much at all.

And I'm sending a small gift to a new friend... :)

Night all,
Lee

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Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:01 am
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Quote:

And I'm sending a small gift to a new friend... :)

Lee


You ARE a small gift to us all here Lee. :)


Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:37 pm

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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
;)

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Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:19 pm
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Quote:
The human journey is, at its core, about the extension of empathy to broader and more inclusive domains. At first, the empathy extended only to kin and tribe. Eventually it was extended to people of like-minded values. In the 19th century, the first animal humane societies were established. The current studies open up a new phase, allowing us to expand and deepen our empathy to include the broader community of creatures with whom we share the Earth. -- source

Unfortunately, some humans, very rich and powerful humans, very deceptive and manipulative humans, very convincingly disguised but evil humans, are simply not on board with the above stated agenda. Their journey is all about the extension of power and control to broader and more inclusive domains. These humans lack empathy, so they can't participate in the evolution that they rest of us would naturally follow, if only we could. But we can't, because the sociopaths are steering us in a completely different direction. We make them our leaders, because they fool us so convincingly, and then we follow our leaders.

That needs to change.

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Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:07 am
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Here is a shining example of empathy in action.

Quote:
Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.

Image

"Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed."


Empathy would direct a normal person to save the distressed deer, and that is exactly what happened. We consider that normal.

However, if sociopaths had been on the boat, how might they have reacted? Would they have done the same thing, for different reasons? Or would they have done something completely different?

For comparison, consider M.E. Thomas and her reaction to the struggling opossum in the swimming pool that she describes on page 1 of Chapter 1 in her book "Confessions of a Sociopath".

Interesting contrast, isn't it. Empathy makes all the difference.

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Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:06 pm
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
Quote:
"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies or yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War


Here is M.E. Thomas justifying her actions in allowing the baby opossum to drown. This is an amazing opportunity to view into the mind of a sociopath. It would be wise for us to know our enemy.

Take for instance my story about drowning an opossum. It is not, in itself, a sociopathic act. Killing a small, cute animal might be cruel or sadistic, which is not necessarily sociopathic. In my case, it was merely expedient. It was an act of dispassion.

In letting the baby opossum die a slow and horrible death, I didn’t feel morally justified. I didn’t think about having to justify myself at all. I didn’t feel sad or happy about it. I took no pleasure in its suffering; I did not give it a thought. I didn’t feel anything other than a desire to solve my problem in the simplest way possible. I was concerned only for myself. There wasn’t much chance that the baby would cause much harm if I saved it, but there was no upside for me if I did. And at some point, there was no point in finishing the job of killing it; the pool was probably already contaminated by the opossum releasing its bodily wastes in the throes of death. It was just easier to cancel my plans and wait for the inevitable approach of death.

Instead of acts, I believe that what really distinguish a sociopath conceptually from everyone else are our compulsions, our motivations, and the narratives we tell ourselves about our inner lives. Sociopaths don’t include elements of guilt or moral responsibility in their mental stories, only self-interest and self-preservation. I don’t assign moral values to my choices, just cost-benefit. And indeed, sociopaths are without excep­tion obsessed with power, playing and winning games, appeas­ing their boredom, and seeking pleasure. My story lines focus on how smart I am or how well I play a situation.


Of note are the following admissions:

  • It was an act of dispassion. (Translation: an act of lacking empathy)

  • I don’t assign moral values to my choices, just cost-benefit.

  • My story lines focus on how smart I am or how well I play a situation.

If you wish to have any chance in this critical battle, you must know yourself and others like you, and you must know your enemy. For normal humans, that is, for most of humanity, the enemy is organized sociopaths. It is the 99% against the 1%. The 1%, the organized sociopaths, are winning. Even worse, they play for keeps.

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Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:00 am
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Post Re: Spotlight on empathy
The ruling sociopaths fail miserably at running this planet because they lack empathy. They believe this is the key to their success. They believe this is what makes them superior to us. They believe they are the proper rulers of this planet for precisely this reason, as it drives their selfish greed, their pursuit of power, and their quest for control. They believe all this because they lack empathy.

And yet, the rest of us, the vast majority, can see right through their kind of thinking. We know there is no quicker route to disaster. We know their kind of reasoning is an abomination. We know it is the root of all evil. We know it precisely because we have empathy.

And yet, little by little, we are tricked into becoming like them.

Most of us have an innate sense of empathy when we are children. In a nurturing environment, that sense of empathy can further develop and mature. In an extinguishing environment, like we have today under sociopathic rule, that sense of empathy can be corrupted and even suppressed. Under those conditions, we see adult behavior steered more and more into the pathological realm of the sociopath. Needless to say, it is the ruling sociopaths that encourage this environment and design its characteristics.

Because they are newer to the environment, children can sometimes see the fruits of empathy better than adults can.


Image


"If it's not good for everyone, it's no good at all." -- source

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Sun Dec 22, 2013 11:38 pm
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