One of my main insights in the past decades is that empathy does not scale. Feminists often talk about toxic masculinity but they fail to see that empathy at scale becomes toxic as well.
We've taught boys very well to handle their potentially dangerous strengths. However, we never teach girls that their abundant empathy also becomes toxic…
One of my main insights in the past decades is that empathy does not scale. Feminists often talk about toxic masculinity but they fail to see that empathy at scale becomes toxic as well.
We've taught boys very well to handle their potentially dangerous strengths. However, we never teach girls that their abundant empathy also becomes toxic when it is not bounded to a small private context. Empathy is a spotlight and spotlights work by obscuring anything outside its cone of light. A person in thrall of empathy is impossible to reason with because the need of the victim is all encompassing and not open for compromise or trade offs. You can't reason with a mama bear when it concerns her child and that is great. However, when she applies that empathy to societal problems, well, then we are where we are today.
The historical solution was that women didn't have the power to turn their empathy into force. This lack of power meant that they could be empathetic without it becoming toxic at the societal scale. Under that context most people considered it a virtue, but that context has passed. With great power comes great responsibility.
One of my main insights in the past decades is that empathy does not scale. Feminists often talk about toxic masculinity but they fail to see that empathy at scale becomes toxic as well.
We've taught boys very well to handle their potentially dangerous strengths. However, we never teach girls that their abundant empathy also becomes toxic when it is not bounded to a small private context. Empathy is a spotlight and spotlights work by obscuring anything outside its cone of light. A person in thrall of empathy is impossible to reason with because the need of the victim is all encompassing and not open for compromise or trade offs. You can't reason with a mama bear when it concerns her child and that is great. However, when she applies that empathy to societal problems, well, then we are where we are today.
The historical solution was that women didn't have the power to turn their empathy into force. This lack of power meant that they could be empathetic without it becoming toxic at the societal scale. Under that context most people considered it a virtue, but that context has passed. With great power comes great responsibility.