Home › Forums › General Discussion › How do we get people to start caring about others? › Reply To: How do we get people to start caring about others?
Misfit WookieeI try to show compassion with my actions. We as a society have seemingly given up on thinking about others, often getting into what I’ve termed the “1up” mentality – trying to get just one car length ahead, so they’re “1up” over that driver, performing illegal (and often dangerous) maneuvers so they won’t have to take an alternate route because it would allow others to “get ahead” of them in traffic, etc. (to keep with your driver theme of your blog post) and this lack of empathy, this lack of compassion was predicted in Robert Heinlein’s book Friday when he discussed the symptoms of a dying culture. In our public discourse, especially the political discourse, this lack of compassion is most evident. I believe we really need to get our society back towards understanding the trials and tribulations that others we encounter go through, and you are correct in that we will understand what our friends are going through far more than strangers. We also live in a world where facts are weighted next to opinion (sometimes opinion is more weighted) and we can’t even agree on a starting point for discussion because facts are often disbelieved and discounted.
Friendship would go a long way towards helping restore a sense of balance, but that’s merely one facet of the gemstone. If we don’t fix all the sides, it’ll never shine, no matter how much we polish that one facet.