The Fine Line Between Empathy And Contempt

as teenagers, many kids laugh at the misfortune of others. whether it's the homeless guy on the street, or that geeky kid with the pocket protecter who brings his lunch in a bill nye lunch box, their reaction to the discomfort of the situation is to laugh. it's very self-protective to snicker at the outsider, lest you may yourself become one. it's much easier to join in the laughter over someone being teased than to stand up to the mob and possibly become the next target.

usually as people get older, they develop a tougher shell. it's not so much that they develop empathy; rather, they become okay enough in their own skin to let their emapthy come out. they become less involved with what the perception of themselves will be, and more concerned with how to lessen the inherent discomfort of any given situation for all concerned.

but it seems like today, people are just failing to grow up. the kids are getting nastier and meaner, and the adults are staying those same self-centered, self-involved, self-protective brats. watch any court TV show, listen to any call-in radio, observe much of the behaviour that people are, shockingly, not embarassed to display on the street. listen to the rude mouthy person on their cell phone in a public place, not caring about what is overheard, actually thinking they sound cool when they curse and talk about inappropriate things in front of my kids. watch the jerk in traffic who not only cuts people off, but then gestures angrily and yells at other drivers who dare to be on the road. check out any small claims court docket and witness the shear number of folks who want to profit from what we would have called in the old days, a simple mistake from an innocent person. what the heck is up with people?

everyone thinks they deserve everything. everyone feels entitled to everything. usually, the amount of consideration any given person feels they deserve is inversley proportional to the amount of respect they are earning. that's the key to why this irritates me so much- it seems like the loudest, rudest, most obnoxious people are the ones who assume they should be served up the world on a golden plate. who taught these hellions that it's all about #1?

in an age when all the schools want to teach is environmenall terrorism instead of real terrorism, and global warming gloom and doom, and that every child should skip lunch and forego birthday presents to send money to aids victims in africa, it seems odd that society as a whole is getting meaner and more cut-throat. the more we try to sensitize and feminize society and tie the hands of our soldiers and emasculate anything strong and masculine, the more people seem to be coming up nasty and hostile and "all about me".

we are trying to breed empathy and compassion, but more and more people, from the scummiest ghettoes to the ritziest hollywood parties , are becoming non-emapthetic and anything but compassionate. scoiety is turning into a sick place where the meanest and cruelest and most expolitive win, and the rest of us just stand idly by, too cowed into fear to say or do anything.

when did growing up into empathy become wallowing in contempt?