2010-12-30 18:03:08.985091+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
I'm not terribly impressed with Scientific American: The Decline of Empathy other than to toss out the suggestion that, perhaps, we as a society have come to a place where we're once again hitting Malthusian limits, and when our economy is bounded it really is us against them.
[ related topics: Economics ]
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#Comment Re: made: 2010-12-31 17:54:37.808303+00 by: Larry Burton [edit history]
It has always really been us against them. It's just that there are times when we don't have a need to be so selective about who us is.
#Comment Re: made: 2010-12-31 19:03:54.942441+00 by: jeff
Like so many other human attributes, empathy is both a function of nature and nurture.
There can be no question that the global, multi-national, multi-cultural, and resource-constrained world economy is having an effect.
So, while there are natural tendencies for all of us to be empathetic, there are growing economic constraints which are likely imposing multi-dimensional boundaries on many parts of society.