"If you can't be kind, if you won't empathize, then you're not on the team. That team is Team Humanity, where we are all in this thing together. Where we are all flawed and imperfect. Where we treat other people's point of view as charitably as we treat our own. Where we are civilized and respectful and, above all, kind to each other - particularly the less fortunate, the mistaken, and the afraid."
Flawed conclusion. I really dislike when people think of empathy as this strange, bland, chore-like sort of service. In reality, it seems artistic to me. You are putting yourself into a completely different world. Have some fun with it! Engage in some creativity!
Plenty of people are horrific to others and yet kind to those within their tribe. Plenty more people hurt members of their own tribe - clumsily, by mistake. Kindness won't get you out of your own head, or out of your own way. It's not enough to just respect the things that exist outside of your head that you don't agree with. You have to want to do the hard work of going through the thought process of someone foreign to your world, in good faith until you can render their world in a reasonably lifelike fashion as they would.
All the kindness in the world without that mental exercise, or research, or attempt to speak someone else's language -- it's better than nothing, but not by much. We should focus on the larger task at hand: getting to know one another's way of lives better and strengthening community.
Flawed conclusion. I really dislike when people think of empathy as this strange, bland, chore-like sort of service. In reality, it seems artistic to me. You are putting yourself into a completely different world. Have some fun with it! Engage in some creativity!
Plenty of people are horrific to others and yet kind to those within their tribe. Plenty more people hurt members of their own tribe - clumsily, by mistake. Kindness won't get you out of your own head, or out of your own way. It's not enough to just respect the things that exist outside of your head that you don't agree with. You have to want to do the hard work of going through the thought process of someone foreign to your world, in good faith until you can render their world in a reasonably lifelike fashion as they would.
All the kindness in the world without that mental exercise, or research, or attempt to speak someone else's language -- it's better than nothing, but not by much. We should focus on the larger task at hand: getting to know one another's way of lives better and strengthening community.