Empathy

1641: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

The picture of someone injured, or being damaged, can trigger an autonomic, uncomfortable surge in the observer.  Everyone has a different response: a gasp of shock, a scream, a rush of nerves, a reaction showing up before the brain has time to process the situation. Each response is a mirrored representation of the other's discomfort. It's almost as if we are in the place of the victim, attempting to reproduce what they are feeling; as if our imagination is being made more alert to finding ways to help alleviate the damage being done. This is "empathy" and it's essential for maintaining compassion.

Vegans (and maybe some non-vegans) can imagine the pain to which helpless farm animals are subjected. We sense their fear and panic and want to do whatever we can to stop it. At the least, we don't want to do anything which might help it continue. Vegans have made some important decisions about their daily lives, taking active steps to disassociate from animal cruelty. By boycotting all animal products, we effectively protest the system which is routinely bringing suffering to those animals being used for human benefit. We detach from any needs we might have for those benefits. A well developed sense of empathy helps us keep up this boycott, which can be difficult in a society so heavily dependent on animal products. By practising self-discipline, we can wean ourselves off these 'benefits' and in turn (if empathy is felt) we can become active in promoting the idea that animals have just as much right to live as any other non-enslaved sentient being.

If we do nothing, if we continue to indulge in stealing life from animals, we can't reduce our sense of participatory guilt nor the breakdown of self-esteem. If we don't boycott animal products but are sensitive enough to feel empathy for them, we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We are tethered by our own habits and the only realistic way to move on, is to observe vegan principle. 

To feel relaxed about one's lifestyle, one must eliminate any anxiety or emotional discomfort triggered by feelings of empathy. To some extent, things are made much easier without empathy! We won't suffer from the shooting pains of mirrored neurons, or similar painful empathetic reactions. But empathy is like eyesight - necessary to identify dangerous external situations. With only a raw cognitive empathy, there might be an understanding, but no moral springboard from which to react effectively.

We see a bully hitting a child, but can't find enough reason to risk 'getting involved', so we just continue to watch. Perhaps a part of us actually enjoys the salacious thrill of experiencing another's discomfort without suffering ourselves. Yet another part of us might be weighing up the odds of expending our own energy and safety to rescue the bullied child. Whether we are a passive onlooker or benefit from the bullying, our much prized empathic 'eyesight' is eroded each time we decide on no-action. 

If we want to develop our empathy, we do it best by practising it at every opportunity. It might involve bravery, or determination, or self-discipline. It may cause us to become ever more sensitive to others' situations (and all the sadder for that). But these reactions are the bedrock of activism. It starts the process of personal change which then makes an impact on our community - albeit slowly - in the case of Animal Rights.

The morality of causing animals to suffer just to produce food for humans, is the case in question here. Each time we ignore the obvious and well documented cruelty in the treatment and killing of innocent animals, another nail is hammered into our coffins and we move further away from our innate sense of responsibility for keeping the world safe from violence.