FreeRange » empathy http://www.projectfreerange.com A Journal about The City, Design, Politics, and Pirates Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:16:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The Empathic Civilisation http://www.projectfreerange.com/2010/07/15/the-empathic-civilisation/ http://www.projectfreerange.com/2010/07/15/the-empathic-civilisation/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:06:07 +0000 Barnaby http://www.projectfreerange.com/?p=914 The video below is a superb and enlightening discussion around empathy.  We all understand that as Humans we have empathetic emotions we wince when we see someone fall over, we get upset when our friends cry.  What is now being discovered is that this empathy is actually wired into our brain, and like many aspects of our brain it can be nurtured into greater fulfillment, or it can be minimized.   Promisingly it suggests an entirely more optimistic version of the fundamentals of humanity than the cold rational selfish thinker that the enlightenment cast upon us.  As Freerange is concerned with how we are all going to live together in the cities of  the future, this new model of the human brain is exciting as it starts to explain why the otherwise stressful urbanity of cities is also so compelling.

Not to mention that this mode of communication is a superb.

Care of The Royal Society of Arts.

“Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.”

]]> http://www.projectfreerange.com/2010/07/15/the-empathic-civilisation/feed/ 0 disaster, disaster, disaster http://www.projectfreerange.com/2010/01/17/disaster-disaster-disaster/ http://www.projectfreerange.com/2010/01/17/disaster-disaster-disaster/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:49:13 +0000 Barnaby http://freerange.editkid.com/?p=416 This is a world of frequent tragic disasters. I’ve heard a few people lately comment about how they feel bad when they can’t connect emotionally to the enormity of some disasters, and wonder why some impact more than others.  I personally felt much more affected by the Victorian Bushfires and Samoan Tsunami than the current Haiti tragedy.  I think we shouldn’t worry about this.  We are social beings, and as such our emotional networks extend from family to friends to friends of friends.  Of course we can relate more to the suffering of those closest to us, and as much as we mentally and spiritually like the idea of universal concern,  its simply uneconomical to have a emotional empathy to six billion other humans.   To mark the almost anniversary of the apocalyptic sadness that engulfed parts of Victoria in Australia last year the guardian has written a stunning review of the events on that sad day.  Read it here.

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