Photo Credit: Scott TannerThe unfunniness of our apathy
1 Feb, 2008, Mukul Sharma
A 1970s song by Elvis Costello & The Attractions goes : So where are the strong/ And who are the trusted?/ And where is the harmony?/ . .. What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
A 1970s song by Elvis Costello & The Attractions goes : So where are the strong/ And who are the trusted?/ And where is the harmony?/ . .. What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
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One could say it represents just another facet of the old hippie mantra about spreading universal compassion and dismiss it as misplaced and mawkishly sentimental.
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But, really, is there anything so hugely hilarious about such humane qualities that a lot of us actually have to giggle our way out of their consequences instead of embracing them? Like, what did that fleeting flower-power movement want besides a little more empathy to be around?
Writing in the Washington Post, the psychotherapist and business psychologist, Douglas LaBier, says that “empathy deficit disorder” (EDD) is a pervasive but overlooked condition with profound effects on the mental health of individuals and society.
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That people who suffer from EDD are unable to step outside themselves and tune into what other people experience. “Unlike sympathy, which reflects understanding of another person’s situation, but viewed through your own lens, empathy is what you feel when you enter the internal world of another person. That kind of connection builds healthy relationships, an essential part of mental health,” he writes.
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According to LaBier, there’s a scientific basis to this too. Recent research shows that the capacity to feel what another person feels is hard-wired through what are called mirror neurones in the brain.
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Functional magnetic resonance imagery has shown that brain regions involving both emotions and physical sensations light up in someone who observes or becomes aware of another person’s pain or distress. In fact, some neuroscientists consider this to be one of the most important findings in the last decade, more so as it’s directly linked to feelings of empathy.
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But when the desperately poor people in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, for instance, are reduced to eating mud laced with a bit of salt and shortening because they can’t even afford a plate of plain rice, it makes no sense for the rest of us to be proud of possessing such a brain.
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Social evolution in that case has proved only too self-defeating for our own emotional well-being if we can read news reports like this and are still able to move on with our lives without concern. How’s that so funny either?
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Editorial on the Editorial:
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Editorial on the Editorial:
The idea of there being an actual disorder called EDD ... Well, that might be a bit over the top ... But I do agree that being able to read news like this and yet remain apathetic is totally perplexing! Call it EDD if you want, I call it icky.
(If you have not read the story called, Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt, please click on the link above.)
