the empathy deficit
its been a while since i’ve written anything vaguely political and that’s largely because i’ve been asleep. i’ve withdrawn myself from party politics, single-issue politics or any form of real activism; disillusioned by a few negative experiences many years ago. its too easy to become apathetic. but then i am reminded by those for whom disillusionment is not an option, where withdrawal is defeat, and abstention just as much as a crime as betrayal. names such as novogratz, mwenda, okonjo-iweala, hersman and of course obama spring to mind. some quotes continue to rattle through my head.
“for everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” - luke 12:48 - its cheesy but deadly accurate.
“i think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker….. When we measure our greatness as a nation by how far the stock market rises or falls instead of how many opportunities we’ve opened up for America’s children, we’re displaying a preference for the childish.” - barack obama - less cheesy but also deadly accurate.
anyone who reads this has won the lottery of birth. It only takes a salary of £14,000 to be in the top 10% richest people in the world. £25,000 and over will get you into the top 2%. So much of what and where we are is simply a matter of luck. being born in the west is often enough, irrespective of parents, education or genes. even if we bring the debate back home to the UK we can see there is a lot of work to do - the lack of social mobility, inner city social exclusion and the treatment of pensioners.
its easy to forget these things though, as i said before, i’ve been asleep for sometime myself.
a recent christmas get together with friends saw me looking around the room and seeing nothing but doctors, lawyers, bankers, phd physicists and consultants. We will never know true hardship, real suffering or breadline poverty and it is with such surroundings you forget how many others live. sure we work hard, but we owe more to mere circumstance than our own individual industriousness. we are the true beneficiaries of the lottery of birth. and it is because of a commitment to fairness over blind luck, desert over inheritance, community over rugged individualism that we all have a duty to help those who are less fortunate.
but its hard.
at a christmas party a few weeks ago i managed to corner a few young teachers on the teach first scheme (the uk equivalent of teach for america) where young bright graduates go and teach in hard-up inner city schools. i was eager to find out what was happening in education, how it was like teaching inner city kids and whether there was hope for change. opinions were divided. i met exhaustion and resignation as well quiet hope and optimism. the fight for change is seldom a glorious battle. but at least they had done something. made a conscious choice and helped close the empathy deficit afflicting so many nations throughout the world today.
its about time i did something myself.
