Politics of Compassion

May 7, 2022 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Countering any politics of anxiety, a politics of Compassion seems the best way to proceed.

Empathy

To start with proper understanding, Compassion is based on empathy, not sympathy. This also makes Inner Strength a necessary ingredient of Compassion.

This is not weak ― quite the contrary. Not being naïve in a mentally developing world, one should always make this utterly clear.

Compassion in politics

Since politics is generally about the real world, things continually happen far from any optimum. One should not try to change this rashly and end up with something even further from the optimum. This is frequently the idealist’s mistake.

Nevertheless, Compassion in politics is definitely about a future utopia, a world that is a nice place to live in for every single human being ― at least as much as possible. This future should become the present as soon as possible. From this stance, we can delve into what to do to make it possible, starting from immediately.

We do it for ourselves. If we don’t achieve it, we do it for our children. This way, only quitting is a failure.

But, in politics?

Indeed so. Politics and Compassionate action are both deeply ethical undertakings. Basically, in any political debate, Compassion can and should be made top priority.

Some examples are abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, racism, the path toward post-capitalism, the place of tolerance and wokeness within society, what to do with religion, leadership, and artificial intelligence.

Compassion may also bring other topics to the front of political attention, such as the place of (and which kind of) meditation in society, starting from a young age. How does one enhance the chances of building a society with many Compassionate people?

Worldwide

History shows several bad examples of striving to make the world into a mirror image of one’s life philosophy, be it communism or capitalism, or any religion, for instance.

So, should one strive for worldwide Compassion?

The difference with prior debacles lies in the fact that Compassion starts from the inside out, from every individual again. This makes it an immense challenge to accomplish globally, even much more so than in the disastrous examples. That may be an advantage, eventually, if what is brought is Compassion itself, not something that looks like it from afar.

One may start simultaneously in some ways, such as:

Note that there is no coercion in any of this. It is based on invitation and spontaneous growth. This way, no idealism can wreak havoc by imposing a well-meant morality that doesn’t fit with real human beings.

This may be the only possible way to reach a worldwide political environment that is durable and humane.