I recently saw that someone was arguing for issues surrounding climate change is capitalism-as in, capitalism is the root to evil and climate change issues. The solution, they argued, was empathy. We have enough resources in the world to spare and make everyone’s life a reasonable standard (I agree with this), and therefore the reason for most issues like homelessness and climate change is the lack of empathy due to capitalism and like minded philosophies. There was also mentions of studies that people flock to a single person’s suffering-like one child who falls down a well- versus multiple people falling down a well or 1000 people falling down a well.
I thought about this for a second, and the reason why to me isn’t empathy-at least directly. In my opinion, you cannot teach empathy. Empathy has to be learned, and through that learning, it’s suffering. And through this, I believe there’s a few considerations that probably show these signs really well. Buckle up and bear with me, I use anecdotal and my own personal experience for this one, and this is more of a thought piece.
It’s not secret that religion is not popular now a days. I don’t subscribe to a particular religion, but I also do empathize (get it?) with the thought processes behind religion in general and the explanation of the universe. We don’t truly know the answers to certain things-and we never will. Those conundrums within themselves and the reason that things happen “for a reason” give me pause to consider that our lives were designed in a certain extent, for things to happen. If life were truly random, I can think of a billion things that could happen right this second. I could have fish for hands, but I don’t and that’s too simple but also a good explanation of that theory. And so within those whims the masses using religion for comfort- is a comforting thing, so to speak. The lack of it makes me question the particular ideas that are being extolled. It’s obvious that religion can control those who fail to use it properly-it’s obvious the meaning that Jesus had when he spoke on topics, and it’s easy to see how it can be twisted by corruption. Yet the virtues at their core hold a true message to those who read between the lines. If you don’t use religion to ease your suffering-or understand the character that’s built from suffering and the natural order philosophy, then what do you use? People are simple and want simple answers. I’ll come back to this.
“Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it” is a common phrase that’s used. It makes sense-but also from a standpoint of suffering. Some things are just too big to understand without truly being there, or truly understanding the value of that character building. We look back on atrocities and think about that-but it’s obvious that too many of us don’t understand the suffering. Just because you got your butt kicked once doesn’t mean that you understand the pain and suffering of the holocaust-but maybe the value of losing a relative to death often gives a perspective that you can understand-and then multiply that by thousands and you can begin to at least have a value of loss and empathy towards a unfair situation. It still has to be learned by that suffering, however, and that’s one thing that I feel our western culture is afraid to do.
It’s hard to suffer-and while we do understand that virtue of overcoming-we still shy away from it. It’s the reason that we identify with the single person in the well. We see one all alone, with only themselves to overcome the patience, the mental strain, the physical, the emotions, and we identify with the struggle and realize how difficult it must be. And when you add more, the burden is shared and so therefore the struggle is less and we value their suffering as less and inherently so. When a group of people suffer, you identify less because it’s a group. You may even start to hate them for it, because they have each other, or because they feel like they’re “special” or whatever notions that people try to justify, even if you can empathize with a single member. Some justify the suffering as necessary for that group as well, and now we have extremists.
We’re so afraid of suffering that we prevent our children from suffering. If it was hard for us in our lives we actively attack it or prevent our children from seeing the difficulties that it brings. Which prevents them from learning the lessons we did and therefore having the same perspectives that we brought into our lives. And then our children start to question of the value of suffering or the value of their own suffering. Everybody DOES suffer, but not to the extent of others and it makes sense if they cannot appreciate the depth of suffering. It creates a problematic feedback loop because if they fail to understand then they will make the same mistakes we did-which is why we try to prevent them, but also why we hope they understand, etc. And because everyone suffers in some way-properly understanding that process to create humility-or allowing the philosophy in is important. Whether you can use religion or just realize that suffering will make you humble and therefore better able to emphasize, the point is that you relate to other people and the lack of control to your situation. We don’t have control over why certain things happen and it sucks. We don’t want to suffer for those decisions, but the ability to overcome those-like the well-or at least accept them is incredibly important to understand and relate to others. Hence why religion is somewhat important for people who need a reason to continue to move without understanding deeper philosophy or accountability. (it can still be used in wrong ways, I get it, but I’m also saying that it’s been a large part of society for a long time-beyond the bible we worshipped animals and different indifferent gods. it might be a necessary part of our psyche).
The problem still remains that suffering creates that empathy, greater suffering is greater understanding and we cannot expect future generations to understand the depth of that empathy without experiencing some of that trauma themselves, and therefore the moment great upheavals of society that have come in our periods. Laws are often written in blood. It’s the downfalls of civilizations, of empires, of nations and more. It could be the downfall of our world, as we push towards money instead of collective sharing. Another user in the thread pointed out that we’ll have to lose a city before people come together.
Not that I WANT to lose a city but it seems like it may be the appropriate amount of suffering to move the world. The city suggested was Miami-as the ocean will begin to swallow the city from rising levels and the heat will destroy much of the value. Insurance companies are already pulling out of the area. The echelon of the western world losing a jewel like a large city would be a fitting point to get across that change needs to happen and happen within all of us. It’s not necessarily that WE are the root causes of climate change so much as corporations-but the fact that WE don’t do something about those corporations that are the problem as well. We will suffer and we ALL will suffer-it’s simply a matter of how and when. If we don’t address that and figure it out, the suffering will become worse and worse. If we don’t deal with the situation that make the suffering, the people will suffer worse.