The Empathic Civilization

[Studeo]

Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g&feature=player_embedded

[MichalPtacnik]

I have a problem with this concept. Empathy for me is a replacement of a more fundamental connection, a sort of "poor man's substitute" for the original implicite interconnection between all things and beings that transcends all that is in this world. It might be a memory of a memory of that connection, but that does not make it any lesser a replacement, that is, a flawed thing.

No there is no empathy in Heaven, because Heaven is built on the foundations of the above mentioned interconnection, not on her lesser sister; heaven is heaven BECAUSE everyone feels that interconnection, that came first, the social and other conditions were only the result.
Incidentally, if we build an emphatic civilisation, we bring that flawed substitute into our "house" so to speak, with all the result; unless you do absolute good, you will have to resort to the methods of evil, that is the law of our world of shades of gray; it might be enough to forge a marginally better place than what we have now, but I would certainly not put my "hopes" into that concept.

Why furhtermore? Because all in all, the more overreaching the "ties" are, the more universal or so to speak, the more binding they are, because the more powerful the organization structure that is built on their foundations is. Thus in religious times we had smaller wars and more importantly, less powerful, domineering and all and all less damnably evil propaganda machine than in the age of nation states.

There are two "natural tribes" or ties for man. Either he has that implicit connection activated and then it is "the All in All," everything in existence is his familly, withotu any sweat, not even one little bit of self persuasion involved; or not and then only his blood familly is his natural tribe permanently, those he is dependent on; does not have to be blood, but it will be that size of up to one hundred, just like old tribes were.

The more you deviate from these, the more unnatural this will be, the more pressure will be put on the individua, and the more pressure you put this way, the more insane society and individuals you get. Look into psych wards for proof nowadays.

I do suspect that there might be equilibria along the great line and that according to the degree of rationality of the fictional tribe, one concept might be a little slower in destroying your soul than the others, I'd say religion is better than nation states (everything in fact is better than that), and "brotherhood of man" is impossible to hold for long but better than nation states and perhaps better than religion.

So alright, fine, let's build an empathic civilization, if it's the best we can have, we'll be probably a tad better off than we are now but... as the guy said, it's not Heaven or Utopia, so it's not "IT." And as in the fairy tales, the Prince would never be happy with a counterfeit Princess. I am all for doing what is possible, but we must remember that our human soul is driven ultimatelly by something that transcends all worldly "possibilities" and "limitations."