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| From Michael Sahota - How to Express Empathy |
I started reading a book (fiction) this morning that got me to thinking. The story is about a teen girl suffering crippling mental dreams/images who is at a new school. She has a raging mentally ill, alcoholic mother, a caregiver father who has taken a lower paying job to be at home more, and they now live in a substandard apartment - all they can afford. She has 2 sisters who cannot (or do not want to) live in the household.
The story starts out with the main character being nearly raped at a wild party, saved by a male student with "psychic powers" who later in the evening gets into a terrible, almost to the death, fight with the perpetrator.
What was through provoking is, that at the party, there were so many exuberant, youthful shouts of "kill him, stomp him" as the perpetrator kicks the guy who saved the girl, and co-partiers instantly facebook/twitter photo shots immediately to the web.
Later, the story morphs to the Salem Witch hunts and audience screams of "kill the witch" while those who dared say nothing stood by in agonizing silence, lest they be branded as a witch.
My mind started analyzing and thinking about empathy in our society. Empathy is the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another person. One may need to have a certain amount of empathy before being able to experience accurate sympathy or compassion.
I did a quick Google search and came up with this article: Prevention of Antisocial and Violent Behavior in Youth: A Review of the Literature. Not earth shattering, but in conclusion, "If the public, including private citizens, educators, researchers, mental health professionals, policy makers, church officials, and business leaders all take ownership of the pervasive problem of youth antisocial and violent behavior, and galvanize efforts, perhaps our communities can become safer and more healthy environments for all citizens." Violence Article.
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