I would say that empathy should be a basic requirement for any political office in a democracy. Anyone who lacks empathy is simply unsuitable, because you have to be able to put yourself in the voters’ shoes in order to fulfill your mandate as an elected representative of the people.
Empathy would also be highly desirable in business leaders, as the purpose of the economy is to serve society and distribute goods at least somewhat fairly.
In our dark times, however, when politics and business mainly serve to maintain the power of those who are already powerful, it is hardly surprising that someone who is interested in doing just that propagates such idiotic ideas as “toxic empathy.”
empathy should be a basic requirement for any political office in a democracy
Empathy should be a basic requirement for participation in society, period.
The whole concept of a social contract is based (and dependant) on empathy.
You lack empathy, you get put into a mental hospital to get it fixed, and to prevent you from harming others and society in general.
If your case is currently incurable (probably because it’s not acquired but due to some as yet unfixable brain malformation), you get taken care of as well as possible for the rest of your life (or until a cure is developed), but prevented from ever interacting with society.
I would say that empathy should be a basic requirement for any political office in a democracy. Anyone who lacks empathy is simply unsuitable, because you have to be able to put yourself in the voters’ shoes in order to fulfill your mandate as an elected representative of the people.
Empathy would also be highly desirable in business leaders, as the purpose of the economy is to serve society and distribute goods at least somewhat fairly.
In our dark times, however, when politics and business mainly serve to maintain the power of those who are already powerful, it is hardly surprising that someone who is interested in doing just that propagates such idiotic ideas as “toxic empathy.”
Empathy should be a basic requirement for participation in society, period.
The whole concept of a social contract is based (and dependant) on empathy.
You lack empathy, you get put into a mental hospital to get it fixed, and to prevent you from harming others and society in general.
If your case is currently incurable (probably because it’s not acquired but due to some as yet unfixable brain malformation), you get taken care of as well as possible for the rest of your life (or until a cure is developed), but prevented from ever interacting with society.
This alone would fix most of humanity’s problems.