Empathy

I like the idea that people evolve spiritually as individuals and as a collective. I’m not sure it’s happening, though. The news we get is negative and I think it skews our perceptions. There must be some good stuff going on out there!

I typed like 12 different versions citing examples of this, and basically I agree.  The internet is filled with so much hate, which just drives people deeper into their own abyss.  It’s awful what people have become in an online world.

Question…In order to have empathy for someone don’t you sort of have to care about them?  How can we have empathy for anyone if we can’t even look after our own emotions?

One of my friends says “Hurting people hurt people.” Same thing in a nutshell. So true.

Deindividualization.  If people think they can get away with it without being identified they will do bad things

I remember when it was very much like that; back when OD started.

To quote a former pastor of mine, “Hurt people hurt people.”

the kindness, understanding, and empathy I’ve always experienced here on OD is why I stay, and why I avoid places like Facebook and Twitter.

I have been pondering the fact that our world seems to have devolved into black and white.  Everything is a choice between this or that.  There is no in between.  People are bad or good, young or old, smart or dumb, skinny or fat, Democrat or Republican, Christian or not, White or not, Male or not.
I once saw a woman on a talk show who shared an experience she claims to have had.  I say “claims,” because she won’t provide information that would have otherwise made it easily verifiable.  In any case, she claims to have died and Jesus showed her heaven and hell.  “Hell” was seeing/feeling all of the pain that she had caused other people in her life.  “Heaven” was seeing all the pain that led her to inflict such pain onto others.  Because of that perspective, she could forgive herself and thus forgive others.  I guess that’s redemption.
I don’t believe that she was dead for three hours as she claims.  I consider myself a Christian, but I don’t believe that Jesus was anymore divine than Gandhi or the Dhali Lama.   But the last part, about hell being experiencing the pain that she had caused others really affected me.  I’ve sort of adopted that as my philosophy, not just for how I behave, but for how others behave.
I know that people who cause pain are still suffering from pain that has been inflicted on them.  It’s made it easier for me to find peace with many of the ugly things that have happened.
Then again, it also causes me more guilt than I think most people would feel for hanging on to hate for two particular people from my past.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let go of that, and I can tell you that just thinking about it as I write this has caused a lump to grow in my chest, as if I’d be losing something precious.
I don’t even know if I’m making sense.

I am, on the whole, all about viewing people as we/us. Until someone else’s sense of “we” has them doing harm to those they consider “not us”.
I don’t care what anyone’s sexual orientation or preference is, I don’t care whether or what your religious beliefs may be, so long as whatever it is that guides your attitudes and actions does not result in harm to others. When that becomes the case, I will say something. Every time.

Empathy is being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

I always think about how unhappy you would be if you spent your life being unpleasant and nasty.  That would be the worst world in my opinion.  Smile and it’s hard to e grumpy.

I agree

So very true.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Empathy is a good thing. I have realized through my older years, that God has given me so much compassion, sometimes I don’t know how I will cope with all the sadness of people, the hurts, anger issues, and worst of all “injustices.” I can’t stand injustice and when I can’t do anything to right-something, I am hard pressed to pray and let the issue go. But, again, I have to feel compassion for those people.  “”Kinda like the owners of our apartment complex.”  They are so very money hungry, they don’t want to spend a lot of money fixing things properly, and so this Polar Vortex caused many burst pipes, boilers going down, all of us tenants having no heat , as we have hot water heating from the boilers through the pipelines.  They now had plumbers here for 3 days from early morning, to late at night. No one had any heat, and when it came back, they had to turn it off to fix a few more burst pipes. I am sorry they had to lay out boocoo (sp) bucks, but, had they kept on top of plumbing and pipes, etc, they would not have had to have all this expense. Plus , they went out and bought a ton of space heaters for all of us to use during the “no heat” days. I think I got off the subject, sorry. ~Lois