I think today’s problem can be easily summarized. People mistake sympathy for compassion.
Sympathy is making someone feel bad and wishing they weren’t so bad.
Sympathy is superficially lofty (“People should suffer more!”), but it often ends up being subtly selfish (“I don’t want to feel bad about them anymore, so people You shouldn’t suffer any more”).
Compassion is similar to compassion, but differs in important ways.
Compassion, like sympathy, begins with feeling sorry for someone. Compassion, however, involves someone who is willing to suffer with that person so that they can overcome their difficulties, rather than simply wanting their suffering to end.
Condolence is sending flowers and cards to a friend when a parent dies. Compassion is to drive to their house and hold them in tears.
Compassion means giving the screaming child the toy he or she wants so that he doesn’t scream. Compassion makes them cry because they know they will be better off if they understand that they can’t always get what they want.
Sympathy is changing your profile picture on social media. Compassion is really about giving victims time and money, listening to their stories, and helping them rebuild their lives.
Compassion is good. we need it in the world. But it’s also easy. Short-term and short-sighted. It’s like, “Oh, I feel bad for him.” Compassion focuses on emotions rather than people. “I hope they feel better.”
Compassion is about people. “Not only do I hope they feel better, Become Better. “So caring is more involved. It takes more effort, both mentally and emotionally.”
Compassion seeks to remove as much tension and struggle as possible. Compassion seeks to help a person overcome a manageable amount of struggle so that they can grow into a better person.
As a culture, I think we are too optimized for compassion and not optimized for compassion.
Sympathy is easy to convey online. It is also easy to see that empathy is communicated among others. Compassion is like sarcasm, and it doesn’t translate well online. It also makes it difficult to recognize others.
It may also be over-optimized for empathy because it’s easier to measure and study. Measuring how good or bad a person is is relatively easy. It is very difficult to measure whether someone has grown.
