The Ethics of Compassion

Wounded Civilian, Aleppo, Syria

THE ETHICS OF COMPASSION

“Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”—Dr. Gustav Gilbert played by Matt Craven in Nuremberg (2000)

ROBREDO: COURAGE AND EMPATHY, NOT DICTATORSHIP, IMPROVES LIVES

Sofia Tomacruz

Published 9:30 PM, August 31, 2018

Updated 1:18 AM, September 01, 2018

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo slammed President Rodrigo Duterte once more on Friday, August 31, and said that it is not a dictatorship, but courage and empathy that improves people’s lives.

“Quiet courage and empathy, and leaders that put in the hard work of actually transforming the lives of people, are rarities in these times, when dictatorship is claimed by some to be better,” Robredo said during her speech at the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Awards ceremony.

…Robredo likewise said attacks from leaders lead to a “scorched earth existence where people are killed, institutions are decimated, and our way of life is threatened.”

“When those trusted by the electorate threaten lives instead of protect them, divide the nation instead of unite it, attack people’s cherished beliefs instead of nourishing them, and present themselves only through bravado and empty promises as the antidote to what they say are outdated and decaying ideas like democracy, we don’t move towards a better future,” she said.

Robredo drew focus on and commended the work of the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay awardees whose actions, grit, and determination where what sow hope and real change.

“Real heroes like you derive strength, not from fear and intimidation, but from compassion,” she said.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/210799-speech-leni-robredo-ramon-magsaysay-awards-2018?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1535734243

 

—Sofia Tomacruz, “Robredo: Courage and empathy, not dictatorship, improves lives,” Rappler.com, August 31, 2018

 

EVIL IS THE ABSENCE OF EMPATHY

The excerpt below from the essay “Empathy” was originally published in The Crisis Papers, an online column launched in 2002 by Bernard Weiner and now a defunct website, closed in 2018:

“In 1946, Dr. Gustav M. Gilbert, a psychologist fluent in German, was assigned by the U.S. Army to study the minds and motivations of the Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg tribunals. The following year, his Nuremberg Diary was published, containing transcripts of his conversations with the prisoners.

“In words consistent with what I have read of, and about, Gustav Gilbert (Matt Craven), he is portrayed in the 2000 TV film ‘Nuremberg,’ as telling the Head Prosecutor Robert Jackson (Alec Baldwin), ‘I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants: a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.’”

I think that “absence of empathy” is not the “definition of evil,” but rather that it is a principal source of evil in the Nazi wars of aggression and genocide, and generally it is a principal source of evil in sins of anger (sins against the sixth commandment), possibly an important factor in other sins against neighbor.

So the character of Dr. Gustav Gilbert is not entirely correct in his definition of evil, but he does offer a very valuable insight.

 

***

“Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act.”—Eric Zorn

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/zorn/ct-50-things-i-ve-learned-in-50-years-a-partial-list-in-no-particular-order-20180104-story.html

 

—Eric Zorn, “50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order,” Chicago Tribune (January 4, 2018)

 

HOW “EVIL” IS EVIL?

Reflections on Its Origins and Dynamics—Inspired in Part by the Tragic Events of 9/11/01

By Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D.

Evil and the Radical Lack of Empathy

Many years ago it occurred to me that evil was most simply defined—psychologically—as any behavior reflecting a complete absence of empathy. What characterized all so-called “evil acts” was that they betrayed an utter lack of regard for human suffering. It really didn’t matter whether the deed was done for religious, political, or economic reasons—or, for that matter, solely out of revenge. Finally, it was irrelevant what the “ideals” of the individual or group were.

...There are those whose severe, emotionally brutal upbringing has actually “programmed” them to affirm their tenuous identity through acting violently toward others. These individuals were deprived of the universal birthright to a safe, secure attachment to their caretakers (which is finally what the term “abuse” is all about). And so their particular way of feeling in control, or of proclaiming their value, is to antisocially act out against all that their deficient caretakers symbolized. By extension, they act out against the broader society, which collectively represents the authority that has neglected, exploited, or abandoned them.

...The intention of those who do violence to others, therefore, is not fundamentally malicious, or evil. It is retaliatory, and the retaliation cannot but be understood by them as warranted. If society, as unconsciously exemplified by their caretakers, could violate their trust with impunity, then how could they really be culpable for acting injuriously in turn? So-called “evil deeds” are, from the morally twisted viewpoint of “evildoers,” not expressive of malicious intention at all but of normal human needs to feel important, righteous, and in control—in short, all the positive feelings of self that eluded them during childhood.

...When we exercise the full extent of our empathy and begin to realize that basic physical, mental, and emotional cravings can at times be irresistibly strong, we will at last grasp that the term “evil” is virtually useless for comprehending the essence of heinous deeds. And we will also recognize that this reductive label seductively invites us to deny our own flawed humanity by denying our enduring connection to the perpetrator. In terms of our ultimate survival, we must at some point extend our capacity for compassion: to reach deep into ourselves and identify with the evildoer. We need to approach him with an understanding that—if it’s not already too late, as it so frequently is—alone has the potential to rehabilitate his compulsively “evil” tendencies.

None of this is to suggest that we aren’t entirely justified in doing all that is necessary to safeguard ourselves against those who, deficient in the human capacity to relate to the suffering of others, would seek wantonly to harm us. But it is nonetheless essential that, even as we are administering retribution and punishment on the evildoer, we seek to discover the psychological origins of their behavior and explore how these “antecedents of evil” may be corrected. To believe that we might “rid the world of evil” by vanquishing the enemy somewhere outside us is as wrong-headed as it is foolhardy. Rather we must creatively address its multifaceted origins, looking for answers quite as much from within as from without. …

References

DeMause, L. (2001). The evolution of childrearing. The Journal of Psychohistory, 28, 362-451.

Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D., whose article on anger was published in The Independent Practitioner in Winter 2001, has been in private practice in Del Mar, California since 1986. A former English professor at Queens College and Cleveland State University, he holds doctorates in both English and Psychology and is the author of The Vision of Melville and Conrad (Athens, OH: Ohio Univ. Press, 1970) and Paradoxical Strategies in Psychotherapy (New York: Wiley, 1986). The present article was originally published in the San Diego Psychologist, March 2002.

CATHOLICS MUST BE ACTIVE IN POLITICS, NO MATTER HOW ‘DIRTY,’ POPE SAYS

May 1, 2015

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

Catholics must get involved in politics even if it may be “dirty,” frustrating and fraught with failure, Pope Francis said.

…individual Catholics must get involved and “embroiled” in politics, he said, because it is one of the “highest forms of charity” since it seeks the common good.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/catholics-must-be-active-politics-no-matter-how-dirty-pope-says

 

—Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service, “Catholics must be active in politics, no matter how ‘dirty,’ pope says,” National Catholic Reporter (May 1, 2015)

 

Action on the political level has the capacity to affect many people for good or evil. In this respect, political action is moral action of an order many times that of interpersonal ethics. Moreover, political action is at risk of impersonality, and it is this attribute that could be the reason why many horrific crimes are committed at the political level. Compassion—the ability to understand and feel the consequences of political decisions on individual people—should be a necessary adjunct of political action. This awareness might reduce, for example, the insanity of instigating wars in which the decision to go to war is made by political leaders.