Empathy, sympathy, and compassion are strands in the network of love and essential corollaries of friendship. Together with love and friendship, they are the saving graces of mankind.

Understanding Sympathy and Empathy

Sympathy is the perception, interpretation, understanding and positive reaction to the plight of someone or another lifeform. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to experience someone else’s pain. It is the ability to consider other people’s plight and emotions.

A lot of questions have been coming in. Is humanity at its end? Are we going extinct? Is there still hope for humanity in this world? The answer is No! We are not done yet. Humans are not going into extinction for at least the next 7 million years. Meanwhile, there’s little or no shred of humanity left in people.

We live in a world of approximately 7.8 billion people. In every sense, we live in a world full of humans with no humanity. Nowadays, humans are humans in only the physical sense but inhumane in every other sense.

The world used to be a very sensible place where law and order prevailed. But look at us now, we live in a world governed by hoodlums, and jungle justice prevails wherever you set foot. Governments are stealing from their citizens, and world leaders are scheming about how they stay in power. The citizens are not left out too. People go about robbing one another and committing all sorts of atrocities.

The world has become a terrible place. However, if we all sympathize and empathize with one other, we would all be able to coexist peacefully. Some may argue that the violent and inhumane part of nature counterbalances the peaceful and humane part. Meanwhile, if you care enough for the living, you should try to make the world a better place to live in.

Some even argue that biology supports inhumane acts considering the theory of predation-prey relationship. However, this same biology explains the concept of mutualism and symbiosis.

This is a call of humanity to everyone out there. If you can help anyone in a way, don’t hesitate. If you can’t help them out of there plight then sympathise and empathise with them. Help the less privileged given the opportunity.

Set up neighbourhood shelters, free health clinics, and if you can afford it, Animal shelters for the endangered species as they are not to be left out of this.

Governments should make laws to liberate its citizens, many times government is slavery disguised as a democracy. The world leaders and the developed countries need to come together to help the underdeveloped.

FINAL TAKE

Morality is separate from sympathy and empathy, and neither necessarily grounds the other. Although, they all point to the same root in humans as the source of possibility. However, it’ll not be practical to argue whether humans are intrinsically evil or good.

We are intrinsically human. And the saving graces we are holding on to is our sympathy and empathy. The best way to maintain our humanity is to always consider others as much as we consider ourselves. Remember to love your neighbour as yourself.