Empathy and compassion: Difference between revisions

Empathy and compassion (view source)

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 ===Empathy is inert. Compassion is active.===
-Empathy is to join in, to wallow in someone else’s problem, to colonise it, without necessarily doing anything to alleviate it. Alleviating the problem — if there is a problem — brings the need for empathy to an end, so the truly committed empathist ''does not want the problem to end'', for that way lies the end of empathy.
+Empathy is to join in, to immerse yourself in someone else’s problem: to ''colonise'' it without necessarily doing anything to ''alleviate'' it.
+Alleviating a problem — if there is a problem — satisfies the need for empathy. So the truly committed empathist ''does not want the problem to end'', for that way lies the end of empathy.
 We see this in a lot of “focus groups”. When the battle has been won, who wants to pack up the banners and go home?