Empathy

 The so-called “culture wars” that continue to shape many of our political conflicts are really just very old battles over an imagined past versus an imagined future. Or at least some people’s idealized versions of a past, i.e., the suburban 1950s, over other’s idealized visions of a future, i.e., 1960s Woodstock.

But of course the roots of the conflict are much older and deeper than that.

Every parent of a young child knows that for some reason, human babies fight over resources, seemingly out of instinct. Fighting between siblings, for example, seems to be natural and much of the socializing process involves teaching toddlers concepts like sharing and fairness.

Or if you prefer one word, it would be empathy. But it’s not entirely clear that empathy can be taught; some people naturally have it, others perhaps less so. Some, most certainly, not at all.

In any event, the underlying urge for each individual to take care of him or herself remains throughout life, balanced against the instinct to care for others. But unfortunately, we find ourselves inside a culture seemingly interminably at war with itself over personal matters, like gender identity, sexual orientation and behavior, resource allocation, discrimination in its many forms, religious beliefs, even clothing styles, hair length and eating habits.

Actually, the list is much, much longer — it covers almost everything.

Regrettably, certain politicians — Ron DeSantis is an example — seem to build almost their entire political identity by staking out one extreme slice of the culture war pie. When I was young, a group staking out the other extreme — the Yippees — thrived in the public spotlight for a very brief moment in time, but they never had any political power.

The problem with those on either extreme is they need to demonize the other side in order to prove their own worth. And in the process, they just make everything worse.

We don’t need leaders like these people. We need people who bring us together. The past was never as good as those who idealize it would have us believe, and the future will never be either.

Like toddlers, we need to learn how to play and share together and to resolve our inevitable conflicts peacefully and with mutual respect. We don’t need to make each other into false enemies. We live neither in the past nor in the future. And we need leaders who recognize that.

LINKS:

• Russians pound access routes to Ukraine's besieged Bakhmut (Reuters)

• Russia may run out of money in 2024, says oligarch (CNN)

• In First Wartime Meeting, Blinken Confronts His Russian Counterpart (NYT)

• A court in Belarus sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison for financing protests and other crimes, in a case that rights groups say was politically motivated. (Reuters)

• Afghan Women, Banned From Working, Can’t Provide for Their Children (WSJ)

• After seven years of Brexit talks, Europe has emerged as the clear winner (Economist)

• A new generation of Palestinian fighters is rising up in the West Bank (WP)

• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) made his state the latest to ban gender-affirming health care ― and the first to criminalize certain drag shows ― after the state’s Republican-controlled legislature sent the bills to his desk. States with similar bans include Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Utah. More bans are pending elsewhere. [HuffPost]

• Abortion clinics crossing state borders spark local disputes (AP)

• The Supreme Court signaled it may sidestep a ruling in a major case involving a Republican bid to give state legislatures far more power over federal elections by limiting the ability of state courts to review their actions. (Reuters)

• Mark Zuckerberg Quietly Buries the Metaverse (The Street)

• The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it (MIT Technology Review)

• Want Isaac Asimov Can Teach Us About AI (Atlantic)

• OpenAI Seems Like a Very Sleazy Company to Be Creating World-Changing AGI (Futurism)

• AI Chatbots are Even Scarier Than You Think (CounterPunch)

• Robot provides unprecedented views below Antarctic ice shelf (Phys.org)

• The Antarctic ice sheet is melting. And this is bad news for humanity (The Conversation)

• Fossil fuels kill more people than Covid. Why are we so blind to the harms of oil and gas? (Guardian)

• Watch how the continents have shifted over the past 100 million years (New Scientist)

• Japan just found 7,000 islands it didn’t know it had (CNN)

• Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims (WP)

• Zoom boss Greg Tomb fired ‘without cause’ (BBC)

• State AG pushes back on Brooke Jenkins' attempt to pass off SF cop case (SFGate)

• Daniel Ellsberg, who rose to prominence after leaking the Pentagon Papers to the media in 1971, revealing that multiple U.S. presidents had systematically lied to Congress and the public about the circumstances around the Vietnam War, said he’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has about six months to live. [HuffPost]

• High Cost Of Child Care Forcing More Toddlers To Work Their Way Through Preschool (The Onion)