I've had this blog entry churning around for a while now, after the last one was so well received (nearly 400 of you read it - thank you!) I was unsure about going over old ground, but after recent events I feel obliged to do so.
This entry is what you'd call a companion piece to 'Obsessively Analytical' which you can find from the main menu. This time I'm delving a little deeper and discussing empathy. Which, if you're a bit of a prick, you might call 'virtue signalling'.
Although the planet has faced huge crises in the past (global conflict is an obvious example) it's not too hard to look around these days and think to
yourself everything is pretty messed up. The declining health of the
environment, the declining health of the economy, proxy wars being
fought on every corner of the globe, the constant threat of terror and the division within our communities, and then right down to the basic
problems that people in a supposedly civilised part of the world face - no food, health care, or bed for the night.
As I just alluded to, some call caring about right and wrong 'virtue signalling', as if virtue ("behaving with high moral standards") is negative, is a bad thing. A term that has come about in recent years due in no small part to the toxic nature of social media and in particular discussions on politics and the like. From a personal viewpoint I call it empathy, and it is
particularly prevalent in those with a myriad of mental health issues and those who can relate to a persons trauma since they've gone through trauma themselves. Simply put, going through bad things can mean you'll see someone else going through an unpleasant experience and relate to them, care about them deeply, be affected by their plight on an emotional level and wish for nobody else
to go through the same. You'll almost (without being disrespectful) feel their pain, and be deeply affected by whatever they're facing. Of course you might just be a decent person who doesn't like bad shit happening, it can be as simple as that. But on a personal level, it's empathy.
I recently watched a fantastic programme
called 'hypernormalisation' by Adam Curtis. A seriously thought provoking piece of film that I think everyone
should watch (yes you!), and the like of which I feel should be compulsory in
education. One of the things that stood out above all else is that it is
suggested that we are beyond the point of no return as a race, that we
are on an endless download spiral and no one in power or otherwise actually knows how to stop it. This is why being an empath in this day and age can be
difficult. The theory of empathy has at its core the idea that you are hyper perceptive to the feelings
and emotions of others. If you look around the world today outside of
our own little bubbles it is not difficult to find those you would feel
empathy towards, particularly when we're on a downward spiral as the programme suggests.
The challenge is being aware of misplaced
empathy, and knowing when your actions do not and can not make a blind bit of difference
to the world. That is what I see as hashtag activism. For example, spending hours tweeting 'bring back our girls' or 'impeach trump' and so on whilst ignoring a hungry homeless person in your home town, that's misplaced empathy. Whilst it is important to care about your fellow man and
current global events you are often better applying the empathy to your own
struggles first and foremost, and concentrating on your own battles and your own bubble of existence. We as
individuals are unfortunately too small and too insignificant to make a
great change to the world as we see it and to fight right and wrong on a
large scale. We can act within our communities and hope those in power have the sense to take the right course of action on a larger scale on our behalf. We can stand together and be resolute, and vote, and fight, and have one voice against things like terrorism and the like. But as individuals sat at home retweeting hashtags because of the empathic feelings we have towards those in need, we make very little difference.
I am in the camp that believes that our days are
numbered, (woe is me etc) and that we are indeed on a downward spiral. Maybe in our lifetimes or
maybe in the next but I believe the key to living a happy life whilst we have the chance and
managing some kind of happiness is knowing how to put that empathy to
good use and to not let it take over you and let it evolve into something where you become obsessively analytical, and depressed and feed the negative energy.
It's important to try to avoid feeding that depression but also not purposefully avoid the realities
and harshness of the world. If the news channels are reporting on certain events then check in, get up to speed, see what's going on, but try to turn the TV off before the same 10 second clip of an explosion is looped for the 25th time that night. Individuals can be kind and can adhere to
principles of right and wrong, groups of people are the complete
opposite. What I mean by that is maybe you can't stop a war from raging and maybe you won't
change a groups feelings towards another group. However you can try to help one person close to you, try to make sure they
are ok or maybe if you walk past a homeless person make sure they have a
warm cup of coffee.
It is a very difficult balancing act when you have heightened empathy. Do your best to stand up for right and wrong without worrying about some illiterate calling you a virtue signaler, but remember to turn off the news once in a while without getting absorbed into the lives of people you can not help.
