empathy_deficit

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Barack Obama Quote About the Empathy Deficit

There's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But 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, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.
As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There's no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You'll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what's going in your own little circle.

Not only that - we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.

They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they're all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can't learn and won't learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else's problem to take care of.

I hope you don't listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern.

From obama.senate.gov/speech/060616-northwestern_un/

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My personal comments

I found this quote today and was very impressed, and very surprised. These are words that I could have said myself, yet they came from a man who has a very good chance of being the next president of the world's most powerful and influential societies.

I felt encouraged, inspired and affirmed by this. For a long time I have felt discouraged and depressed about the state of things in the country where I spent most of the first 40 years of my life. I don't know if Barack has ever seen my writing on empathy or anything else, but his words tell me this is a person I could actually have an intelligent conversation with. This simply amazes me. I had all but given up on the United States.

I now feel hopeful for the first time in many years. And it is not just this statement which gives me hope, but other things I discovered last night, including watching videos of his wife Michelle. They both seem extraordinarily sincere, and idealistic. The first person who told me about Obama was a friend of mine, Sarah L. She was the first person who showed me that it was possible to be highly emotionally intelligent and yet feel suicidal. After spending several hours last night learning more about Obama, I can see why her instincts led her to give him her support. I have sometimes called Sarah my EI coach. Maybe one day she will be on Obama's staff of emotional intelligence advisors. If Obama is elected, I can actually imagine such position being created in the cabinet. This would be a big step in the right direction. It is too early to tell what will happen, but for today at least, I feel encouraged and undepressed.

S. Hein
Balatonlelle, Hungary
June 6, 2008

Note: I 2008 I said I felt inspired by Obama. A few months later I moved to Montenegro where they now have the ".me" domains for their country and I created this website: ObamaInspires.Me

2011 Update - I have lost a lot of respect for Obama. And lost a lot of faith in him. One reason is his assassination of bin Laden