Melissa Harris-Lacewell Professor, Politics and African-American Studies, Princeton :
Empathy is the foundational political emotion of a diverse, democratic society
It is empathy that allows us to create a cohesive national identity rooted in something beyond militarism. We are citizens of a state to the extent that we live within defined geographic boundaries. But the writings of Benedict Anderson reveal that we are participants in a nation only to the extent that we imagine ourselves to be part of a community or a "people." Empathy is an important part of what allows us to engage in that imagined sense of linked fate, shared identity, and common purpose. Without empathy we cannot enter into a social contract whereby we are willing to subjugate some of our selfish impulses in order to abide by the rule of law and the dictates of a civil society.
Empathy has also been our country's critical mechanism for social change, justice, and expansion of democratic participation. Consider for a moment the Civil Rights Movement. My colleague, Taeku Lee, convincingly demonstrates that the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was catalyzed by the empathy that emerged after Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. Lee shows that the televised violence against peaceful civil rights demonstrators caused a flood of letters to he White House. Those letters expressed empathetic outrage about the violence and demanded policy remedies.
Given the powerful political purposes of empathy it is distressing to hear an attack on empathy emanating from the Right. It is also bizarre to find that attack centered among many who represent the "Christian," "family values, " and "morals voters" wing of the GOP. After all, the Bible is clear that Jesus Christ was, first and foremost, concerned with the power of empathy. When challenged as to what is the greatest commandment Jesus responded "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22: 37-39) Thus, at the very center of Christian history and theology is an imperative toward empathetic conduct toward our fellow man.
The golden rule of empathy and reciprocity extends far beyond a Christian context and is the unifying thread of theological commitment that binds all world religions. The Dali Lama teaches, "Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion has more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal."
To twist empathy into a slur for political purposes undermines the foundational principles of religious, civil, and political life in the modern world. We cannot allow it.
During his campaign Barack Obama was fond of asserting that the arc of history is long but that it bends toward justice. To the extent that he is correct, we must credit empathy for reaching forth the powerful hand that bends history's arc toward more just ends.