Empathy.
That very special group called...
During the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, a psychiatrist named Douglas McGlashan Kelley spent long periods of time with the defendants. Many would receive a death sentence for the terrible atrocities they committed. Before they died, Mc Glashan wanted to know what it was that led people to support the terrible policies that led to the death camps.
One comment McGlashan made mentioned was of how 'very ordinary' his subjects were, they were not psychopaths, insane, or even special, they were just - 'ordinary'. His conclusion was the one characteristic they all lacked was empathy.
‘Empathy’, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Most of us experience empathy when we see someone fall from a bicycle and slide along the ground. We wince as though feeling their pain and we empathise.
Empathy can be eliminated by abuse but it can also be trained out of us. Treating people as 'others' separates them from our group. Identity politics divides us into ever expanding groups. Age (in my case) gender, skin colour, religion, language, even accent are all characteristics that people have chosen to separate themselves into their special group.
Once in a group, those outside do not warrant sympathy or empathy. Their needs become less important than ours.
This issue is particularly damaging when people in positions of power and authority place the public in the category of being 'others'. The police, magistrates, social workers, doctors, care workers, soldiers and politicians might separate themselves from people they are supposed to care for.
Those who complain become a nuisance or enemies; problems to tolerate until pay day. The man driving too fast, a mother who can't cope with her baby, an irritating old person who is in pain, an argumentative teenager, or a demented lady who can't remember They annoy us, but they all belong to us and they all deserve our empathy not summary judgement. Ralph McTell sang about the vagrants in his song, The Streets of London.
Many employees of government are trained not to be naive, to watch for deceit, to shield themselves from the mistakes that could make them appear foolish. In so doing they fall into the trap of walking the same path as the 'ordinary' people who were tried in Nuremberg. To avoid that we must all temper our cynicism with the polish of decency and consideration. Someone in difficulty, might be telling us the truth. We must place ourselves in that individual's shoes for a moment and imagining how they feel, - by empathising.
In this way we remain part of our very special group, called humanity.
Robin E Horsfall
