On Empathy; Two-Part Special!
Audio 1 here!
Audio 2 here!
Earlier this month, as some of us celebrated the founding of our country, we may have wondered how very different our society might have been had our founding fathers understood our empathetic nature. Instead, we live in a society…where we are all presumed to be self interested adversaries, who can be coerced into cooperating in exchange for financial rewards.
But today there is a new view of humanity and it’s being expressed by an ever widening range of writers, thinkers, and scientists. Rather than the traditional assumption that humans are primarily selfish and anti-social, this new view recognizes that our primary drive is social. A healthy human is inclined towards cooperating, and gets pleasure from taking care of others and making a positive social contribution.
To better understand this new view on these two programs we’ll speak with author of the recently published book “The Empathic Civilization,” Jeremy Rifkin. Rifkin will explain how human history has followed a particular direction which has made us increasingly empathetic. And he’ll discuss how, with the possibility of multiple catastrophes looming, it is our potential for a global empathy which is essential to saving us.