The War on Empathy
How Political Division is Destroying Our Humanity
Empathy is not a luxury. It is not a sentiment to be displayed when convenient. It is a necessity—a moral imperative. True empathy means caring before another’s pain becomes your own, before injustice knocks on your door, before the world forces you to recognize the suffering you once ignored. And yet, in today's world, particularly in the United States, empathy is under siege. It has been twisted into a political liability, mocked as weakness, and dismissed as naïveté. This rejection of empathy is not just a failure of character but a direct threat to democracy, justice, and global stability.
‘‘True empathy means acting before suffering reaches your doorstep. Waiting until pain is personal is complicity, not compassion. Injustice, cruelty, and oppression thrive when people refuse to care. The time to stand up is now—because if we wait, it may be too late.’’
We are witnessing the consequences of a world that waits too long to care. The climate crisis, the erosion of human rights, the rise of authoritarianism, and the exploitation of the powerless—these are not new tragedies. They are the inevitable result of a society that prioritizes self-interest over shared humanity. The United States, a nation that prides itself on its democratic ideals, has become a battlefield where empathy is ridiculed and cruelty is rewarded. The question is no longer whether suffering exists—it does, in abundance—but whether we are willing to act before it is too late.
Empathy vs. Self-Interest: A Nation in Crisis
The United States is deeply divided, not just politically but morally. The rejection of empathy has become a hallmark of modern conservatism, where policies that harm the most vulnerable are justified under the guise of personal responsibility and “freedom.” Healthcare is denied to millions because their suffering is deemed their own fault. Refugees are turned away because their pain is seen as someone else’s problem. LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, and racial justice are under attack, often by those who have never personally experienced the discrimination they legislate.
This is not just callousness—it is a deliberate erosion of our collective humanity. It is the refusal to see others as equally deserving of dignity and security. It is the privilege of those who have never faced true hardship to dismiss the struggles of others as exaggeration. It is the selfishness of those who have never been hungry, homeless, or marginalized to demand that others simply “work harder.”
But history has shown, time and again, that ignoring suffering does not make it disappear—it makes it fester. The pandemic was a perfect example. Had the government prioritized collective well-being over profit, over corporate greed, over the arrogance of individualism, hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved. Instead, selfishness prevailed. Misinformation, denial, and political gamesmanship turned a crisis into a catastrophe. The suffering that could have been prevented was allowed to spread until no one—not even the privileged—could escape its reach.
The Global Collapse of Empathy
The rejection of empathy is not unique to the United States. Around the world, authoritarian regimes thrive on division and dehumanization. Refugees fleeing war and climate disasters are met with closed borders and hostility. Workers are exploited while billionaires hoard wealth beyond comprehension. Species are driven to extinction while corporations continue to ravage the planet with impunity.
In Europe, far-right movements are gaining traction, fueled by fear and the rejection of solidarity. In Gaza, Yemen, and Ukraine, innocent civilians are being slaughtered while world leaders offer little more than empty rhetoric. In Brazil and the Amazon rainforest, indigenous people fight for their survival against industries that see their land as a resource to be pillaged. The world is not suffering due to lack of resources or solutions—it is suffering because of greed, indifference, and the absence of empathy on a mass scale.
The climate crisis, perhaps the most glaring example of our collective failure, has been allowed to spiral into disaster because too many people, particularly in the wealthiest nations, refused to care until the consequences became unavoidable. And even now, with wildfires, floods, and extreme weather devastating communities, too many still cling to their ignorance, refusing to acknowledge their role in the suffering of others.
The Cost of Waiting to Care
History is clear: waiting until suffering is personal is a recipe for disaster. The Holocaust did not begin with concentration camps—it began with indifference. Slavery did not persist for centuries because people didn’t know it was wrong—it persisted because those in power refused to act until it threatened their own interests. Apartheid, segregation, genocide—these horrors were allowed to happen because people waited too long to care.
And yet, we continue to make the same mistake. We watch as human rights are stripped away, as wealth inequality deepens, as ecosystems collapse, as war crimes unfold, and we do nothing until we feel the impact ourselves. This is not just a failure of empathy—it is complicity.
When empathy is treated as optional, suffering becomes inevitable. The refusal to see the struggles of others as our own ensures that the pain will spread, engulfing even those who once thought themselves immune. It is not a matter of if but when. The unchecked rise of fascism, the destruction of our planet, the deepening of systemic injustices—these crises will not wait for us to decide they are worth our concern.
Empathy as a Revolutionary Act
True empathy is not passive. It is not simply feeling bad for others. It is action. It is rejecting policies and politicians that dehumanize. It is standing up for those who are silenced. It is using privilege not as a shield but as a weapon against injustice.
The world does not need more thoughts and prayers, more meaningless expressions of concern. It needs people willing to fight. It needs people who will speak up before the suffering reaches their doorstep. It needs people who will stand against cruelty, even when they are not the immediate victims.
In the United States, this means voting against those who legislate suffering. It means refusing to accept the normalization of cruelty. It means demanding policies that prioritize people over profit. It means recognizing that Black lives matter, that trans rights are human rights, that refugees deserve safety, that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. It means challenging the systems that benefit from division and exploitation.
Globally, it means holding leaders accountable. It means recognizing that borders do not dictate the value of a human life. It means fighting for climate justice, for indigenous rights, for an end to war and corporate greed. It means seeing the world not as a collection of isolated struggles, but as an interconnected fight for justice.
The Urgency of Now
The time for waiting is over. The suffering is here, the crisis is now. There is no excuse for indifference. Every moment spent ignoring the pain of others is a moment wasted, a failure of conscience, a betrayal of the very principles that define a just society.
True empathy is not convenient. It is not easy. It requires discomfort, sacrifice, and a willingness to confront our own privilege. But it is the only path forward. It is the only way to break the cycle of suffering before it consumes us all.
It should not take losing your rights to care about the rights of others. It should not take facing poverty to care about economic justice. It should not take experiencing racism, sexism, homophobia, or any form of discrimination to stand against it. True empathy means recognizing that another’s suffering is reason enough to act.
Because if we wait until the pain is ours, we have already lost.
Further Reading
"The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy" by Anand Giridharadas – A powerful exploration of how empathy, persuasion, and activism can challenge political polarization and create meaningful change in an increasingly divided world.
A truly excellent thought piece. Well written with a great many cogent, compelling points. On topic and on target the author’s fine words.
I would only propose two changes: instead of “The War On..” perhaps “Empathy Under Attack” or The Emptiness of a World Without Empathy”, etc.
As well, instead of “fighting” for an empathetic world, perhaps we could seek out commonalities that enable us to build cohesive, caring communities that serve to foster feelings of empathy and love for one another.
Many thanks for this insight. I thought I would share with you a brief extract from my book, Growl, in which I explain the differences I see.
"Sympathy, empathy, and compassion are siblings in a family of nouns that describe a concern for others. Each one has a different personality. (I dislike including pity in this lexicon as it suggests a condescending attitude based on a belief in one’s own superiority.) Whereas sympathy connotes some degree of fellow-feeling, and empathy suggests that you are in some way relating to what the subject of your attention is experiencing, compassion as I see it is about extending one’s cognitive, emotional, imaginative, and even physical sensibilities to the other being and acting to lessen or end that suffering. In its emphasis on moving one from a position of passive interest to engagement, compassion is for me a key value in animal rights. It is compassion’s inherent ability to motivate us to do something about the affliction we’re encountering that makes it so special and fundamental."