A Doctor and Pundit with whom I regularly interact (on Google+) has a new article up at the American Spectator.
Sympathy, Empathy, and the Lack of Both In American Civil Society
By Pradheep Shanker, the American Spectator
Savaging those who offer prayers for someone else in trouble.
The realization that the American political climate has of late become hostile, unproductive, and downright horrid is nothing new to anyone. The partisanship and tribalism that exists in our public discourse seems to find strange new ways to isolate and anger every corner of civilized society.
However, this animosity seems to be seeping into even the simplest of personal interactions, where criticism and abject hostility to those that are trying to simply be helpful and kind is now commonplace.
An illustrative moment this week was with the recent illness of director and actor Kevin Smith. This past weekend, Smith suffered a massive heart attack, one which the actor himself stated may have killed him if he had not quickly and promptly responded to his own symptoms.
This is, of course, something that most of us can relate to. Almost anyone alive today has lost someone to a heart attack.
Having had our sympathy played and our empathy used against us we now are very selective in who we offer either to. The new default response is “fuck you.” Don’t like my offering prayers for someone in need of them? May the fleas of a thousand diseased camels infest your crotch. Mock the God and Faith of Christians? Good luck when the sons of the false prophet come for you.
Y’all should have thought about it more carefully before making the Chicago Way the National Way.
