Christocism - Empathy is the Most Rational Emotion

Previous Entry: Here

Philosophy, especially Applied Philosophy, answers practical questions. Why would Conservatism, and the Hierarchy it Represents, constantly attack empathy? An attack on Empathy is an attack on reason and therefore civilization itself.

Let us start with definitions.

Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Conservatism: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.  All conservatism must be assumed to be contempary conservatism because to BE conservatism as described here it must employ the tactics that we so condemn.

Let's also remember our root story:

"Edmond Dantès’s fight is really a war against hierarchy itself: jealous underlings (Danglars), ambitious social climbers (Fernand), and a career-protecting magistrate (Villefort) weaponize their positions to crush a powerless sailor, using the legal, political, and class systems to bury him without trial. In prison he learns how those pyramids work and, after his escape and reinvention as the Count of Monte Cristo, he turns the tools of rank—wealth, titles, patronage, and reputation—against the very elites who wronged him, exposing their corruption and toppling their carefully arranged ladders. His struggle isn’t just revenge; it’s a critique of a society where status outranks truth, and a test of whether justice can be forged from the same structures that once oppressed him."

If Conservatism is the defense of the status quo and hierachy (and it is), then empathy is its natural bane because empathy lets people understand the suffering caused by the status quo and hierarchy. The the first principal of why Empathy is the most rational emotion is because it empowers your own position should you be lowered in status (due to those above you understanding your struggles) or raised in status (by remembering what it was like before your status was elevated). Understanding the needs of others improves their desire to also see your needs met unless grossly unjust or unfair by dint of the preseveration of the status quo. It is in the self interest of the rational being to have empathy for their own betterment and that of society and the self interest of the conservative (ie irrational being) because empathy is a threat to their defense and natural sycophancy to their imagined betters.

The Second Principal of Empathy is that it is the most rational emotion because even in a society without any form of hierarchy whatsoever, it removes our fears of solofism or a simulated universe. On a purely rational level, co real being in our experience do not prove our experience is real but it does reduce the odds we are dealing with a Demon Deceiver, since the more cosuffering beings in our frame, the more we know that it is not merely ourselves dealing with the pain of existance but all people suffer in one form or another. By understanding we are not alone, we can conciously undertake the choice not to increase suffering and thus our own.

The Third Princial of Empathy is an inherent understanding that by valueing the lives of others we also understand the inherent value of our own. The need of Cosnervatism to Demonize the Other shows that their short term tactical gain by using psychological propoganda and predatory memetics to preserve the power of their masters weakens the very fabric of society. If I matter, you matter. If you matter, I matter. This is pretty basic stuff. When a person is naturally inclined to say "I matter so you don't" any rational society does nto trust or empowwer such an individual; indeed Capitalism demonstratively does just this and it is why it is also an inherently irrational system.

The Fourth Pricipal of Empathy is relevance to understanding what is true and why it matters.  No one person can experience all the wisdom needed to be practical or useful in one lifetime and empathy helps you effectively select who is best to learn from.   It's elemental reason to be able to crowd source function.   Your ability to do LITERALLY EVERYTHING Dantes or an empowered Christocism applicant desires to achieved is key on your understanding of the experience of others.

Criticism:

• The weak mind might say that Conservatism allows "Many conservative philosophers (Burke, Oakeshott) emphasize prudence and organic social development rather than simple hierarchy defense." This is false, because those existed before the internet and weaponized demonification. Conservatism as manifest consistenly in the 21rst century clearly is anti empathy. 
• The weak mind might say the dichotmy is false yet Dantes proves this false; for he was a good and charitable everyman in his own frame, preyed upon by heierachy and while he ratioinally chose empathy in the persuit of justice, those above him would not. The defense of the weakmind that this is fiction again collapses because our own society demonstrates real examples for everything that happened to him and more. It is a sloppy rhetorical argument to escape liablity not philosophical rigor. 
• The weak mind may argue that the second principal of empathy does not disprove soliphism. It does not nor do I say it does remove our fears. Fears are not rational and as social animals we gain strength in social bonds with few exceptions. Fiction is used as a framework for understanding and to claim that this is a fictional occurance ignores the volumes that could be added outside of our framework and mental exercize.
• Concerns about hiercharisam complxity nad the limits of empathy are not even worth my time to address.

Application:

Empathy is at the heart of any applied philosophy meaningful to make a better human being.  What is the goal of the applied philsophy?  Justice? Avoid regret? Maximize good? All of these things are aided and empower by empathy.  A Philosophy that does not address the need for and value of empathy at its heart is side stepping the thing that makes the vast majority of human being worth anything and the very fundamental glue by which every single meaningful and measurable human accomplishment has been achieved or at the very least recognized in the signficiance thereof.